


Let's Go to a Wedding Together

by HomeForImaginaryFriends



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe, Fake/Pretend Relationship, M/M, Weddings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-12
Updated: 2016-10-25
Packaged: 2018-08-22 02:29:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 48,400
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8269270
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HomeForImaginaryFriends/pseuds/HomeForImaginaryFriends
Summary: Terushima Yuuji doesn't believe in relationships, except he's crazy in love with Sawamura Daichi, who just wants to get through this wedding, surrounded by all his exes, unscathed and emotionally intact.  So of course Terushima will be Sawamura's fake date, nothing could possible go wrong with this plan.or"I didn't want to show up to my exes wedding without date so will you please pretend to be my boyfriend?"





	1. Chapter One

Terushima laid sprawled out next to Sawamura, his head resting on one of his very nice, but not very comfortable, biceps. Terushima ignored the slight crick in his neck he was getting because adjusting his position would mean actually moving, and Terushima’s body was just not up to that right at that moment. He would soak up this moment for as long as he could, enjoying the presence and warm body next to him. Sawamura was always the first to move, to gather sheets and dirty clothes to take to the wash. Then and only then would Terushima force himself to move, force himself not to pull Sawamura back down onto the bed and plead with the other man for a kiss or cuddle or anything really. Terushima was not above begging, but even he had his pride.

Sawamura’s phone buzzed, was quiet then buzzed again. Terushima turned his head, just slightly and nuzzled his face against the soft skin of Sawamura’s bicep as the dark haired man used his free hand to cover his face, the buzzing of his phone loud in the otherwise silent room.

“Ignoring a spurned lover for me?” Terushima asked, grinning against tan skin and resisting the urge to drag his teeth ever-so-lightly against the hard muscle. “I’m touched.”

“Out of all the people in this room, I’m not the one to have a so-called spurned lover.” Sawamura spread his fingers wide, peeking out from in between the digits as a grin turned the corners of his mouth upwards. Terushima was so completely and utterly attracted to the man it was really unfair.

“True.” Terushima hopped up, searching for his underwear in the surprisingly messy room. It had been a shock when Terushima learned that Sawamura was a disorganized mess of a person, and sometimes it still surprised him. He was doing his residency at a prestigious hospital in Tokyo, how was he so messy? Unfortunately it just made Terushima like him all the more, something that should have been a flaw somehow turning adorable just because it was attached to Sawamura Daichi.

Terushima wasn’t suppose to like Sawamura, not in that sense anyways. Thinking he was attractive and liking his body were one thing. Thinking of him as a friend was also acceptable. Finding his disorganized room and other such flaws adorable was verging on the not-okay side of things. Being more than half in love with the guy was Terushima’s actual worst nightmare come reality because Sawamura didn’t see them as anything more than friends with really nice benefits.

Terushima had liked that, at first. Sawamura was always busy with his residency and studying and trying to actually sleep in between those two things, he didn’t have time for an actual relationship. Terushima had never believed in monogamy, or relationships in general plus he worked two jobs and helped babysit his sister's kids when he could, he didn’t really have time for a relationship either even if he had believed in them. The set up that Sawamura and he had agreed to nearly six months prior, after three years of being a friend-of-a-friend, had sounded perfect to Terushima.

Sawamura got his no-strings attached sex with a friend, because he had apparently tried a one night stand once and it was not for him, while Terushima got to have sex with a very attractive and muscular Sawamura Daichi. Wins all around.

Except Terushima’s stupid heart and ridiculous brain and idiotic hormones got together and decided to develop a crush on Sawamura. Terushima hadn’t been too alarmed at first, he had crushes before and he found that the quickest way to get over them was to get to know the person. Eventually everyone let you down. Terushima wasn’t always so negative about life, but that’s just how things always seemed to turn out. But dumb Sawamura Daichi refused to let Terushima down.

“Those are mine.” Sawamura calls out from his still sprawled out position on his bed as Terushima looks down at the dark blue boxer-briefs he’s holding. Of course he knows they aren’t his, Terushima had purposely worn his neon orange boxers to make Sawamura laugh, but the dark haired man had just been blankly staring up at the ceiling and Terushima really didn’t like being ignored, or the slight pinched look on Sawamura’s usually smiling face.

“I thought they were a little big.” Terushima laughed as pillow was thrown at him before he turned and put his hands on his hips, facing Sawamura still fully nude. “What’s wrong? Tell Papa Terushima everything.”

“Gross.” Sawamura replies automatically but at least he’s sitting up now, reaching down and tossing Terushima’s bright orange underwear to him. Terushima quickly slips them on and grins down at him, handing over Sawamura’s own, boring, underwear.

“What’s up? I don’t think I’ve ever seen you ignore a call.” Terushima begins searching for the rest of his clothes, recalling that half of them are most likely not even in the bedroom since Sawamura had basically been on him since he walked into the apartment.

“Suga is getting married.” Sawamura said, cringing slightly as he rolled off the bed and started to strip down the sheets.

“The guy you dated and were in love with in high school?” Terushima hip checked Sawamura, who was far too solid to do anything but sway a little bit, before he started to help with the sheets.

“That’s the one.” Sawamura didn’t sound jealous or bitter at all, which wasn’t really surprising since Sawamura probably didn’t have a jealous or bitter bone in his body. “Which would be bad on it’s own, but the man he’s marrying, one of his groomsmen is Kuroo.”

“The dude you dated and were in love with in college?” Terushima smacked at Sawamura’s hands to get him to drop the sheets. “Tell me you are not going to this wedding. Oh god Daichi, why are you going to this wedding?” Terushima uses all one centimeter of his height over Sawamura to his advantage and pulls him into a headlock. Admittedly if Sawamura hadn’t obligingly let Terushima do this, he never would have been able to accomplish it. Terushima wasn’t a small guy by any means, nor was he weak, but Sawamura was all muscle everywhere.

“Because Suga invited me and he called to make sure I was alright with it.” Terushima groaned and let go of Sawamura.

“He asked if you were alright with him getting married? Really? That’s harsh.” Basically should have just told Sawamura he thought he was going to be forever alone guy.

“I know which makes what I did after that the only logical option.” Sawamura wasn’t meeting Terushima’s eyes. Being quiet and patient wasn’t really Terushima’s strong points, but Sawamura was already spilling about what he’d done after a moment of silence. “I checked the bringing a guest box.”

“Oh no Daichi,” Terushima pressed his hand to his mouth but his laughter was bubbling up. Sawamura gave him a rueful smile.

“I’m glad you find this so funny because guess who’s going to pretend to be my boyfriend?” Sawamura crossed his, rather impressive, arms over his, extremely impressive chest. Terushima only allowed his eyes to linger over all the exposed skin before looking around the room dramatically before slowly meeting Sawamura’s eyes once more.

“Please tell me Azumane, I’ve always thought you two would make the cutest couple.” Sawamura makes a disgusted noise in the back of his throat. “Yeah you’re right, you two would date and you’d fall in love and then he’d find his one true love because that’s who you are. You’re the guy everyone dates before finding the one person they are meant to be with.”

“That would be much harsher if it was coming out of the mouth of someone who believed in love.” Sawamura was grinning good naturedly though. It was another thing Terushima found refreshing about him, Terushima never had to watch himself or pretend to be someone else around him. Terushima was loud, a little mean, and impulsive but Sawamura didn’t seem to have any problem with that.

“Are you asking me to help you lie to all your closest friends and loved ones?” Terushima asked, actually serious for a moment because Sawamura was nothing if not an honest guy.

“Kuroo is bringing his long term boyfriend with him.” Sawamura deadpanned. “And yes he met him while we were dating after I had already fallen for him, go blow yourself.” Terushima laughed.

“If I could do that Daichi-dearest, I would not need you.” Terushima grabbed his pants off a lamp. “So when’s the wedding?” The relieved smile Sawamura sent him should not have affected Terushima so deeply. “You’re paying for everything, I ain’t no cheap date Daichi, stop laughing! And I’m wearing my Hawaiian shirts.”

“Anything but the Hawaiian shirts!” Sawamura shouted dramatically but he was still smiling happily, earlier tension gone from his unfairly nice looking shoulders.

\--------

From: Bobota Kazuma  
Why would you ever think this would be a good idea?

Terushima was stretched out on a bench at the train station, watching his and Sawamura’s bags as the other man went off to get them food and drinks for the ride. Terushima had the great idea not to tell his two best friends about being Sawamura’s fake date to his ex-boyfriend’s wedding until it was too late for either of them to do anything about it. He probably shouldn’t have group texted them though.

From: Futamata Takeharu  
Obv this is a great plan!!! Dr Dreamy will fall in love with u!

From: Bobota Kazuma  
Or back on planet earth Yuuji gets hurt, everything falls apart

From: Futamata Takeharu  
OR free trip + tons of sex = rly gr8 vaca

To: Bobota Kazuma, Futamata Takeharu  
Kazu don’t worry, I’ll be fine! Just a friend helping out another friend  
Nothing to see here  
Move along  
Don’t mind the dead body, that was there when I got here

From: Bobota Kazuma  
I’ll have the drinks ready when you get back

To: Bobota Kazuma, Futamata Takeharu  
I’ll be fine! I’m a big boy, I can handle it

From: Futamata Takeharu  
Thats right!!  
Yuuji is a strong independent woman who dont need no man!  
Send pics!

“Talking to your mom?” Sawamura asked with a grin as he bent down to grab his bag. Terushima followed him to board the train.

“Yeah, how’d you know?” Terushima grinned, pushing in close behind Sawamura and following him into an empty compartment. They both stowed their bags before sitting down on the benches. “What did you get me?” Terushima tore into the mysterious food bag before gasping.

“Mochi, thought you’d like that.” Sawamura said with a happy smile before pulling two take-away bento boxes out of the other bag.

“Daichi, did I ever tell you that you’re my hero?” Sawamura raised an eye brow, looking over at Terushima warily. “And everything I would like to be?”

“I don’t know what’s happening.” Sawamura glanced out the door of their compartment as a family shuffled along after peeking inside.

“I can fly higher than an eagle,” Terushima cooed, rubbing his face against Sawamura’s shoulder.

“Oh you’re serenading me for mochi balls, naturally.” Sawamura shook his head but Terushima continued on, undeterred.

“‘Cause you are the wind beneath my wings!” Terushima sang loudly, and off key as Sawamura took out his phone. “Hey- what are you doing?”

“I’m seeing who else can be my fake boyfriend, I x-rayed this guy with a bunch of toy soldiers in his stomach the other week and he gave me his phone number. He has really bad bowel obstruction but I’m kind of desperate.” Sawamura said, scrolling through his phone.

“Rude, if this is how you treat your fake boyfriends then I don’t even want to know how you treat your real ones.” Terushima sniffed, snatching a bento box before realizing Sawamura’s smile was a little strained. Terushima opened the box and carefully broke apart his chopsticks as he thought over a couple things. “Should come up with a story?”

“A story?” Sawamura asked, shaking himself out of the melancholy he had fallen into. It was another thing Terushima liked about him, he never stayed knocked down for long.

“Yeah, our love story.” Terushima wiggled his eyebrows before Sawamura knocked into his side, rolling his eyes.

“We should keep it as close to the truth as possible.” Sawamura looked up for a moment, his cheeks turning a lovely shade of red. “Maybe we’ll leave out the part about being friends with benefits.”

“Are you ashamed of how we got together Daichi? That’s so hurtful.” Terushima would have been more convincing if he wasn’t shoveling food into his mouth.

“You look like a hamster.” Sawamura grinned, lightly poking Terushima’s extended cheek. Terushima turned his head and snapped his teeth at the offending finger poking him. Sawamura laughed, smiling happily before he pinched Terushima’s nose.

“So, we knew each other through a friend of a friend for a couple years, saw each other at various social gatherings-”

“Very clinical so far, I’m feeling weak in the knees with the obvious romance that’s brewing.” Terushima set aside his now empty bento box and started snacking on the mochi, humming happily to himself. Sawamura spared him a soft smile before continuing on.

“About six months ago we started dating.” Sawamura shrugged, causing Terushima to laugh.

“Daichi, you are the one with the actual relationships under your belt, how is that the best you can come up with?” Terushima held out a mochi, letting Sawamura bite into it before popping the remainder into his own mouth. He ignored the insistent pounding of his heart, the part of him that liked the domesticity of the situation. That part of him either needed to be shot dead or buried deep in his subconscious if he was going to survive this trip.

“Okay, you’re right, there will be questions.” Sawamura stretched his legs out and Terushima studied the way the denim pulled taut over his thighs. “There are going to be so many questions, are you sure you’re okay with this?”

“Whoa, are we panicking now? Is this it? I’ve been preparing for this!” Terushima yanked Sawamura to his chest before cradling his head in his arms, he felt Sawamura’s confused laughter against his throat, shaking the other man's body.

“What is going on?” Sawamura asked but Terushima quickly shushed him, softly petting his head.

“It’s alright, I’ve got you, everything’s going to be okay Daichi. You just let it all out now. Yuuji’s got you safe and sound in his well developed, beautifully toned arms.” Sawamura was shaking with real laughter now, the sound deep and raspy. Even his laugh was beautiful, it was really unfair.

“We are so screwed, they are going to catch on immediately.” Terushima pushed Sawamura back up and wiped his fingers underneath Sawamura’s eyes. “I’m not crying, stop that.”

“That’s right, you’re a big strong manly man, your tears are safe with me.”

“Do you even realize how creepy half the stuff that comes out of your mouth sounds?”

“Um, excuse me, I am creepy all of the time. That is so unbelievably rude for you not to notice.” Sawamura laughs but lets his head bang against the wall of the compartment.

“I’m sorry for pulling you into this.” Sawamura said softly, glancing over with that small smile that pulled right at Terushima’s heart. Terushima put down on the mochi balls before turning his full attention to Sawamura.

“You really think we can’t pull this off?” Terushima asked, eyebrow raised and just a little insulted as Sawamura shook his head in a negative. Terushima gently laced his fingers through Sawamura’s, shifting his body closer and pressing their hands against his chest, right over his far-too-soft heart. “Ask me something your friends would ask.”

“Who asked who out first?” Sawamura asked, still showing no confidence in Terushima.

“It was mutual, after seeing each other around so often we realized we had a lot in common.” Terushima traced small circles with his thumb on Sawamura’s hand. “Though in all honesty I kind of planted myself in Daichi’s way because I liked the way he filled out his shirts and how he radiates warmth. Every time I saw him he was surrounded by people, attracted to that same warmth he gives off. I never thought he’d look twice at me.”

“That was pretty good.” Sawamura relaxed against Terushima.

“But what you really want to know is am I good enough for him?” Terushima brought their combined hands up to his mouth, kissing each knuckle softly. “The answer is no. I am a bartender and work on cars for a living, I never went to college, and Sawamura Daichi is completely out of my league. For some reason he hasn’t noticed that yet, and I’ll do everything in my power to make sure I deserve him.”

“Even better.” Sawamura is smiling, his cheeks dusted pink. His eyes are the color of melted chocolate and Terushima takes a deep breath to steady his pounding heart.

“My sister has 13 year old twins who love romantic comedies. I can dole out the charm and the cheese without even batting an eye.” Terushima picked up the box of desserts again before offering them over to Sawamura. “So Suga is marrying that flashy model-man, total downgrade if you ask me, sure he’s pretty but I mean- has Suga even seen you naked? Because boy, I was definitely not lying about the nice way you fill out your shirts.” Sawamura laughed around a mouthful of mochi.

“Oikawa Tooru, we were kind of rivals in high school, but I guess that changed when they became roommates.” Sawamura shrugged those big, nice shoulders of his and Terushima wiggled down, rolling his head until it was resting against said nice shoulders. “You don’t really expect to stay forever with your high school sweetheart but-” Sawamura shrugged his unoccupied shoulder.

“You kind of expected to stay with your high school sweetheart forever, didn’t you?” Terushima asked, flinching for poor, unsuspecting 19 year old Sawamura who hadn’t known he’d be dumped for a showy model.

“Maybe if we had gone to the same school, or if we hadn't been separated by four hour train rides neither of us could afford or find the time to take very often.” Sawamura sighed and rested his head on top of Terushima’s. “Maybe it would have turned out differently.”

“But then you met Kuroo.” Terushima supplied. “Who broke up with you for-”

“Kozume Kenma, Kuroo’s former high school sweetheart, though they never dated in high school. Kenma was a year younger, and Kuroo thought his feelings were unrequited. As we all know now, they definitely were not unrequited.” Poor unsuspecting 22 year old Sawamura Daichi, did not see that one coming either.

“So-”

“Yes, it happened more than two times but at least I stopped falling in love with them. That has to count for something.” Sawamura groaned.

“Sure it does sugarplum.” Terushima patted Sawamura’s thigh. “You just keep telling yourself that. While you’re at it tell yourself we’re on the train to Hogwarts.”

“Wow a train that goes all the way from Japan to England?” Sawamura asks.

“It’s magic, Daichi you don’t understand anything.” Terushima huffs, shifting slightly until he’s comfortable before letting out a yawn. Why did they have to leave so early?

“You’re not going to start snoring, are you?”

“Rude.”

“It’s so loud, sometimes I have nightmares about you’re snoring.”

“I want to break up.”

“But we’re only fake dating.”

“Then I want to fake break up and find the love of my life.”

“Fake love of your life.”

“He’ll treat me the way I deserve.”

“Fake treat you the way you fake deserve.”

“Now you’re just throwing the word fake where it doesn’t belong, Sleepymura.” Sawamura hums from above Terushima but he’s already mostly asleep. Terushima follows quickly after him, a smile planted on his features.


	2. Chapter Two

Hinata Shouyou is the cutest creature Terushima has ever had the absolute joy and privilege of meeting. They arrived at the train station at the same time, so Sawamura and Hinata had arranged to meet up before taking the second train even further out into the country where the wedding was taking place.

Hinata is practically bouncing around Sawamura, explaining this or that from his studies or home life, peppering questions in about Sawamura’s own life, all the while including Terushima like their own little personal sunshine.

“Stop looking at him like that Creepyshima.” Sawamura elbows Terushima as Hinata dashes into the bathroom, singing about going to the bathroom on his way in.

“I love him.” Terushima says quickly, turning to Sawamura and gripping his shirt. “I’m sorry Daichi but I love little Hinata Shouyou and we need to break up right now because my heart is full of that ball of sunshine reincarnated.” Sawamura is laughing, pushing Terushima away from him.

“I thought you two might get along.” Sawamura is grinning proudly.

“He’s too pure for this world Daichi, we have to protect him.” Sawamura laughs again as Hinata slides out of the bathroom, glancing around before beaming at them as if he had been afraid they’d leave without him. “I want to put him in my pocket and carry him around and protect him from all the bad things in the world.”

“You’re one of those bad things in the world.” Sawamura grins, handing over Hinata’s bag as he hops over to them.

“How do you two know each other?” Terushima asks, because Hinata looks like a high schooler. Maybe he’s someone’s little brother?

“We went to highschool together!” Hinata tells him happily.

“You went to highschool together?” Terushima repeats, glancing up at Sawamura who is pressing a hand over his mouth, holding in his laughter.

“Yes!” Hinata suddenly stops and peers up at Terushima with a suddenly serious face. Terushima freezes, eyes wide as those golden looking eyes pin him down in place. Sawamura looks like he’s about to choke on his own laughter. “You thought I was still in highschool, didn’t you?” How could someone so innocent looking who sung songs about using the toliet suddenly look like he’s murdered a dozen guys and is adding your name to the list?

“I’m sorry?” Terushima squeaks out.

“That’s okay!” Hinata chirps, continuing on as if he hadn’t made Terushima wet himself a little. “I get that a lot, everyone says I’ll love it when I’m 40 and look younger but a week ago they confiscated my ID at a bar because they thought it was a fake. They made me call my mom.” Hinata pouts, shoulders slumping.

“Hinata, Yuuji actually works in a bar, he can make any drink you can think of.” Sawamura said, patting Hinata on the shoulder and the ginger man cheers up instantly, looking up at Terushima as if he learned the taller man spun gold out of wool.

“Really?” Hinata exclaims loudly how cool that is before running ahead to check the train schedule.

“He’s like Tinkerbell.” Terushima looked over at Sawamura in amazement, but the other man just looked confused. “You know, the adorable little blonde fairy from Peter Pan? She was so small that she could only feel one emotion at a time.” Terushima motions to Hinata with feeling and Sawamura laughs loudly.

“What happened?” Hinata asked.

“Yuuji said you’re like Tinkerbell, she was so small she could only feel one emotion at a time.” Terushima choked and hit Sawamura for telling Hinata that so bluntly. What if he filled with rage and killed Terushima? He wouldn’t even be able to properly defend himself because the ginger haired man was so adorable.

“Huh.” Hinata tilted his head before nodding. “That’s kind of true, I like you!” Hinata grinned before making his way over to the train that had just arrived.

“Get in my pocket you adorable little sprite.” Terushima growled out, causing Sawamura to laugh loudly again. Several people looked over, smiling at the display, which was just like Sawamura really. Whenever Terushima laughed loudly in public people scowled or walked around him quickly like he was losing his mind.

Twenty minutes later saw them on the pretty empty train heading out to the hotsprings they’d all be staying at for the wedding. The inn, famous for both the hotsprings and the cherry blossom trees, looked very romantic and beautiful when Terushima looked it up on his phone. Hinata was enthusiastically asking questions to both of them, hopping around and generally being the new light of Terushima’s life, but he was also pretty sure Hinata had snapped a picture of him and Sawamura. Terushima also couldn’t get the feeling that the kid, no matter that he was only a year younger than Terushima, was sizing him up.

“So Shouyou,” Hinata beamed at the use of his first name, which made Terushima’s grin stretch wider, into something softer. “Tell me about what I should be expecting.” Hinata laughed before looking up and giving it a great deal of thought, which worried Terushima a little. It didn’t help that despite their fake relationship, Terushima did want Sawamura’s friends to like him.

“It’s okay, I already told him about Suga and Kuroo.” Sawamura spoke up and Hinata’s eyes went wide.

“Really? You told him?” Hinata asked in surprise, leaning forward.

“Well it wouldn’t exactly be nice if I let him walk into the situation without knowing-” Sawamura leaned around Terushima as Hinata suddenly bent forward and groaned, holding his stomach. “Are you okay Hinata? Do you need stomach medicine?”

“You told your new boyfriend about your ex boyfriends at the wedding because you didn’t want him walking into the situation unawares!” Hinata nearly yelled, gaining the attention of the other few people on the train.

“Well, yes?” Sawamura tilted his head before looking at panicking Terushima. “Hinata has a nervous stomach.”

“I-I didn’t tell my new boyfriend, I should have, shouldn’t I?” Everyone became still.

“You have a boyfriend Hinata?” Sawamura asked, looking like this didn’t compute. “Oh. You didn’t tell him about Kageyama.” Terushima was lost.

“I didn’t think there was anything to tell!” Hinata scrunched down low in his seat, still clutching his stomach and looking miserable. “Why would I ever repeat that story to anyone?” Sawamura switched seats so Hinata was now between Terushima and him, before he began rubbing soothing circles into Hinata’s back.

“Why don’t you practice on Terushima?” Sawamura suggested and Terushima sat up, nodding his head enthusiastically.

“Kageyama Tobio went to highschool with us too, he was in my year and we were both dumb dumbs except I was stupider because I went and fell in love with the idiot but he didn’t love me back.” Hinata explained in a rush of breath, too fast for Terushima to comprehend it without a moment to think it through.

“Well that’s not too bad, everyone has crushes in highschool.” Terushima was 28 and his crush was sitting next to a beautiful, spastic ginger haired man.

“That’s not exactly the whole story.” Sawamura cringed behind Hinata’s back.

“I don’t know how to explain the rest!” Hinata pleaded with Sawamura, though Terushima couldn’t see the puppy dog look the older man was receiving, he could see Sawamura’s resolve crumbling.

“Kageyama wasn’t exactly sociable,” Sawamura explained with a soft sigh. Hinata nodded in agreement. “Hinata was his first real friend. So when Hinata confessed his feelings, Kageyama was afraid he’d lose his first friend, and he sort of-” Sawamura trailed off, looking uncomfortable, but not quite as pained as poor Hinata.

“Oh man, you were in a relationship and he never felt the same, did he?” Terushima asked in a hushed voice, feeling for the smaller man. Unrequited love was a real bitch, but thinking the other person felt the same for god-knows-how-long before realizing the truth must have hurt even worse.

“I thought he just didn’t like sex-stuff, which was okay with me!” Hinata held up his hands quickly before dropping them, staring at them in his lap with a sad, lost look. “It lasted nearly our whole third year.”

“He just-” Terushima motioned. “Let you believe? Didn’t he realize he was hurting you?”

“He didn’t mean to hurt me! He was just afraid of losing our friendship, of being alone again.” Hinata sounded mournful for this Kageyama character, though Terushima couldn’t imagine someone that dense to believe that a relationship like that would end up in anything but disaster. Terushima and Sawamura might be faking a relationship for a week, but at least they both knew that’s what they were doing, though Sawamura was a little in the dark about Terushima’s actual feelings.

“But still.” Terushima trailed off.

“I think he would have continued it until one of us died, honestly.” HInata tried to smile, but the look fell short.

“Oh god he fell in love with someone else, didn’t he?” Hinata nodded glumly and Terushima wanted to gather him up for real this time and shield him in his pocket.

“Even then I don’t think he ever would have said something if I hadn’t seen them.” Hinata glanced at Terushima’s face before shaking his head and waving his arms wildly. “Not like that! Not cheating or anything but I saw- Kageyama’s really really awkward, yeah?” Sawamura nodded in agreement behind Hinata. “He doesn’t smile often but when he does, for real and not his scary competitive smile, it’s like GWAAH!” Hinata hit his fist onto his chest, right above his heart. “And I saw that smile, but it wasn’t aimed at me. I’m the one who confronted Kageyama.”

“You’re the one who ended it?” Terushima asked and Hinata nodded, rubbing his chest.

“Idiotyama didn’t realize that saying he didn’t feel the same way about me when I confessed to him wouldn’t make me stop being friends with him!” Hinata puffed out his cheeks before deflating quickly. “He begged me to still be friends, that he’d continue the relationship if that’s what I wanted. I told him we would be fine but I- I lied to him.” Sawamura was frowning, his own sad look etched onto his face. Terushima knew that he was not really friends with either of his exes, though he put on a good show for them. Sawamura emailed Sugawara every once and a while, but he mostly avoided the latter phone calls. Terushima knew it had been a couple years since Sawamura had even spoke with Kuroo.

“But you said you had a new boyfriend, right?” Terushima asked, trying to cheer him up and it seemed like the right thing to say.

“Right!” But then Hinata was groaning. “But I didn’t tell him about Kageyama because it’s the worst thing that’s ever happened to me and it’s pathetic and embarrassing and I don’t want him to know I’m an idiot, even though everyone already knows that!” Hinata bent over, clutching his stomach again.

“Okay enough of that!” Terushima pulled Hinata up and gave him a good, firm shake. “Can’t change what’s already in the past so here’s what you’re going to do. When does new boyfriend come?”

“The day before the wedding, he could only get a few days off of work.” Hinata was chewing his lip.

“Then you have three days to tell him about this Kageyama Tobio guy, which you will do over the phone and in the privacy of your own room.” Terushima tried to give Hinata a stern look but ended up ruffling his hair instead. “Oh wow that is soft, and look it just springs right back up.” Hinata hummed and leaned into the touch, Terushima beamed over his head at Sawamura.

“He already has his own home, you can’t keep him.” Sawamura said sternly, but his grin ruined the look. He looked proud of Terushima, and Terushima was only slightly embarrassed how his chest puffed up in happiness at the look. Terushima played with his tongue ring, a nervous habit that he thought he had broken a while ago because really, he didn’t get embarrassed. Sawamura’s warm chocolate eyes dip down to Terushima’s mouth and he quickly looks away, a pink flush rising on his tanned cheeks. Terushima couldn't help the grin. Maybe he'd bring back that nervous habit, he knew Sawamura appreciated his tongue ring.

When they got off the train Hinata gathered their faces close to take a picture in front of the cherry blossoms, which began an impromptu photo session, mostly between Hinata and Terushima. Between Hinata’s adorable puppy eyes and Terushima’s never ending poking, they managed to get Sawamura to join in on a couple photos also.

“Oh wow, send that one to me, look at that jawline.” Terushima hung off of Hinata’s back, his chin resting on the shorter mans head as they flip through the pictures.

“Sawamura is very attractive.” Hinata agrees with a nod, sending Terushima the picture without question. Sawamura’s face is red, but there’s a fond smile threatening to overtake his features as he subtly takes a picture of Terushima and Hinata.

“Send me that one too!” Terushima bends over further, digging his chin into Hinata’s shoulder until the younger man complies.

“I brought my laptop, I’ll upload the pictures to it and I can email all of them to you!” Terushima jumps happily and starts spelling out his email, letter-by-letter. Sawamura has already worked out what he’s spelling and is shaking his head. “So you’re email is- gah! That’s dirty Yuuji!” Terushima laughs happily, grinning over at Sawamura before giving Hinata his real email. “Oh no I left my bag somewhere!”

“Me too!” Terushima panics, both of them go to run back the way they came before Sawamura cleared his throat.

“Am I going to be forced to separate you two?” Sawamura asked severely, but his eyes are warm and happy as he holds one bag, the other two tossed over his shoulder. Terushima see's a couple of people bounding down the way towards them behind Sawamura's shoulder.

“No no, we’ll do better, we’re sorry!” Hinata apologizes, quickly taking his bag as Terushima does the same, nuzzling his face against Sawamura’s neck in thanks as he tries to get a better look at the three people coming down the road.

“Please don’t take my sunshine away.” Terushima sings softly into Sawamura’s ear, and he’s so close he can feel the vibrations in Sawamura's chest of suppressed laughter. “We’ve got incoming.” Terushima whispers even softer, feeling Sawamura stiffen before nudging Terushima’s face away from his, a soundless ‘thank you’ on his lips.

“I’m sending that one to Kenma, he was worried Daichi was going to kill him and use his body to feed the cherry blossoms.” Hinata was fiddling with his phone, his bag once again forgotten at his feet.

“Kozume thought I would murder him?” Sawamura asked, sounding doubtful.

“Hm. No, wait, not you! Ryuu and Noya would do the dirty work but you would need to be called in afterwards.” Hinata chirped after turning his phone towards the Terushima and Sawamura, showing the picture he had just taken. Terushima’s face was hidden from the camera, but Sawamura’s was not. He had a gentle, warm smile spreading across his lips and his eyes were crinkling at the corners as they were surrounded by a soft, pink background. "Actually I'm the one that said if someone needed murdering than Ryuu and Noya would do it, and then Kenma said that they would have to call you in to get rid of the body."

“Why am I the one who knows how to get rid of a body?” Sawamura asked, looking half proud and half offended, his cheeks flushing as the stared down at the picture.

“Why is this the conversation we hear?” The small group of people come to a stop behind them. Terushima looks up with a smile, and he already can pinpoint the lucky couple, Sugawara Koushi and Oikawa Tooru. Oikawa Tooru is as primped and pretty as he is in every photo or interview Terushima had seen of the man, he’s tall with lean muscles, the glasses are a nice touch and he has a happy, charming energy about him. Anyone standing next to him should have looked like a bag of trash in comparison, but somehow instead of making Sugawara Koushi not much to look it, they made each other even more attractive. Though Terushima couldn’t pinpoint why, maybe because they looked unbelievably happy just standing next to each other. Sugawara was plenty pretty on his own, with his ash colored hair, eyes a mixture of brown and gray, and a friendly smile.

“You didn’t hear anything about any murders.” Sawamura deadpans to the guy who had originally asked the question, the only one Terushima couldn’t place.

“That’s why you’re the one who knows how to hide the body and get rid of the evidence Dai.” Sugawara chirps happily, stepping forward gracefully to pull Sawamura into a hug before he’s nearly tackled by Hinata.

“Suga this place is so beautiful!” Hinata yells and Terushima can’t help but feel like Hinata interrupted the hug quickly on purpose. So the little shrimp was not completely innocent after all, Terushima found he liked the ginger man even more.

“Yuuji, this is Sugawara Koushi, Oikawa Tooru, and that’s Iwaizumi Hajime.” Sawamura hugs Iwaizumi, they pat each other on the back before releasing each other with equal happy grins. Iwaizumi reminded Terushima a lot of Sawamura, but maybe just a smidge more scowly. Sawamura was hardly ever seen without a smile. “Everyone this is Terushima Yuuji.”

“Yoohoo, new boyfriend!” Oikawa chirped, stepping forward to shaking Terushima’s hand with a sly smile. Oikawa looked like he was about to say something to Sawamura, probably about Terushima but Hinata interrupted again, hopping around and bumping Oikawa back a step from his former upper classman.

“I am so excited for the hotsprings! I haven’t been to one since I was like- oh sorry Oikawa- 10 or so.” Hinata pulled Sugawara along, back towards the inn and Oikawa followed, cringing slightly at the scuff mark Hinata had made on his new-looking shoe when he _accidentally_ stepped on him in his excitement.

“Shrimpy is kind of devious, isn’t it?” Terushima asked as Sawamura grabbed Hinata’s forgotten bag and the three leftover started to follow a little further behind.

“Hinata? Devious?” Iwaizumi asked, looking doubtful.

“No, he’s really not.” Sawamura smiled, a clear look of fondness for the boy on his face. “A lot of people have to pay close attention to read situations, or they make a study of it. Hinata is incredibly intuitive, he never can say when a person is uncomfortable or nervous, he’s just always known and he does his best to make the situation better for those people.”

“Huh.” Iwaizumi looked up, thoughtful. “Come to think of it one time Oikawa was in a really bad spot and Hinata came blazing in, calling him Grand King and asking him all these flattering questions.” Up ahead Hinata still has a hold on Sugawara’s arm, but he’s included Oikawa in the conversation, he has them both smiling and laughing, Oikawa’s scoffed shoe forgotten.

“So does that mean he’s secretly a genius?” Terushima questioned and the other two looked perplexed.

“Is it a palace?” Hinata yelled from ahead as the inn came into view.

“No Shouyou, it’s just the inn.” Sugawara said, laughing as Hinata continued to make happy sound effects.

“Yeah, genius isn’t probably the correct word.” They all laughed, causing the three in front of them to glance back.

“Dai, how-” Sugawara is cut off as they walk into the inn together.

“Daichi!” Terushima barely manages to dodge out of the way as a small body barrels past him and right into Sawamura. “Good, you’re here, now we can begin!” The man who’s possibly even shorter than Hinata forces Sawamura to drop his bags and begins to pulling him away.

“Yuuji?” Sawamura doesn’t look alarmed, as if he is often dragged off into the unknown by little black haired men with lightning stripes in their hair.

“I’ll go check us into our room.” Terushima waves happily. Hinata looks like he’s torn between staying with Terushima and running after the other two so Terushima tilts his head and gives him an encouraging look.

“Wait, Noya!” Hinata yells excited, following behind them behind a black curtain seperating the main entrance from a side room. There’s loud cheering that emits from the room once Hinata has disappeared.

“I can help-” “Let me take your-” Sugawara and Oikawa start speaking at the same time, stepping towards Terushima in what would be a worrying manner if Terushima was actually Sawamura’s boyfriend. It’s clear they want to know everything about him and his relationship with Sawamura, and that will be a great source of amusement for Terushima all week.

“You two are suppose to be enjoying your party and entertaining your guests.” Iwaizumi has his arms crossed and scowl firmly in place. Oikawa tries to complain, to whine but gets a swift kick in the arse for his attempts. Sugawara laughs, pulling his whimpering fiance behind him.

“Fine, we’ll leave him to you, for now.” Sugawara shoots Terushima a singularly sweet smile before lacing his fingers with Oikawa, which immediately gets the taller man to stop pretending he’s in pain, and they walk off to the other room together, another loud cheer is heard as they duck in between the curtains.

“Don’t they have a wedding to worry about?” Terushima asks, grabbing up Sawamura’s and Hinata’s bags before walking over to the desk with Iwaizumi.

“No, that’s all been settled for months now.” Iwaizumi cringes slightly. “You better get use to prying and judging because that’s all this week is for. Except maybe the actual wedding day but still, I wouldn’t relax your guard too much then either.” Terushima laughs even though he knows the other man is mostly serious.

“So if I’m in for a week of people judging and prying into my life and relationship then what’s this week mean to you?” Terushima questions, smiling at the women behind the main desk as she sets about getting his room key.

“I’m Shittykawa’s best friend.” Iwaizumi looks up, scowl planted on his face once again. “His single best friend.”

“You poor thing.” Terushima grins and Iwaizumi lets out a bark of laughter, it’s not a happy sound. Terushima goes to study the other mans face but he’s already turning away, walking down the hall to show Terushima to his and Sawamura’s shared room. “You don’t have an exes here too, do you?”

“God no.” Iwaizumi says quickly, causing Terushima to laugh. “So Sawamura told you about his?”

“Yes.” Terushima thinks about it for a minute before continuing on. “I was kind of looking forward to hating if not Sugawara, then at least Oikawa.” Iwaizumi laughs and shakes his head, stopping in front of Terushima’s room.

“Good luck with that,” There’s that same bitter twist to Iwaizumi’s laugh but Terushima doesn’t know him well enough to pinpoint what’s wrong. Maybe that’s just how his laugh sounds? Maybe Iwaizumi isn’t pleased with the upcoming nuptials? Maybe he’s got something else going on in his life that’s causing that bitterness?

“So how many couples are actually at this thing?” Terushima questions as he makes his way into his room, setting down all three bags with a satisfied grunt.

“Four official ones, five now including Daichi and you.” Iwaizumi answers without having to stop and count them up.

“Five official ones?” Terushima asks, eyebrow raised because of the odd wording. Iwaizumi grins, which lights up his whole features and makes him quite handsome.

“You’ll see, I wouldn’t want to ruin the fun of playing who-is-in-love-with-who.” Terushima laughed at this.

“Sounds like my kind of game, is their alcohol involved?” They both make their way out of the room, Terushima closing it behind them.

“The only way Oikawa got me here is the promise of free booze.”

“Iwaizumi, you’re my kind of guy.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Who is ready for for a ton of wedding shenanigans and a crapton of pairings?? Me, I am, because anytime I try to write a cute, happy little oneshot I can't help but write about 8 other Haikyuu pairings.


	3. Chapter Three

Terushima thinks one of the best perks about being Sawamura Daichi’s fake boyfriend is that he can touch him whenever he wants because it’s a thing couples do. It’s not as if Terushima hangs all over Sawamura, neither of them would enjoy that all that much, but he doesn’t have to stop at nudging Sawamura’s shoulder with his own or a friendly dude-bro pat on the back. So Terushima allows himself little touches that he had denied himself before, and Sawamura lets him. There’s no awkwardness or Sawamura hissing ‘what are you doing?’ at him. Sawamura either leans into the touch or continues on whatever he was doing.

It probably helps that by the time Iwaizumi and Terushima finally manage to track down Sawamura, he’s already a little tipsy. Tipsy Sawamura is one of Terushima’s favorite kind of Sawamura. He’s a little goofier than normal, a little more relaxed, and Terushima imagines that must be what Sawamura was like in high school, before he had his heart broken and had grown up and become an adult.

“Wait, back up, he pulled the fire alarm?” Terushima asks in disbelief, pressing slightly against Sawamura’s back with his chest to get a little closer to Nishinoya Yuu, who is swiftly becoming one of Terushima’s favorite people ever, especially since he keeps telling him great high school Sawamura stories.

“Yeah!” Nishinoya is crowing with laughter, head tossed back and eyes closed tight as he remembers it.

“The basketball team was always taking all the good food!” Sawamura defended, face flushed but a proud grin planted on his handsome features.

“They were the worst!” Nishinoya agrees, looking like he is about to go find them and fight them. “But you were always yelling at us for getting into fights with them!”

“Daichi,” Terushima tsks and shakes his head. “You weren’t setting a very good example for your underclassmen.” Sawamura sputters in disbelief.

“Bobata told me you were suspended like 10 times for getting into fights!” Nishinoya and Tanaka crowd close, eager little faces near Terushima’s.

“Yeah but I’m a delinquent, you were the captain.” Terushima countered back. Sawamura finally managed to push Terushima off his back and turned to face him on his bar stool.

“I wasn’t even a captain when I did that!” Sawamura grabbed a handful of Terushima’s shirt when he spun too quickly and nearly toppled himself off the stool. “You were a captain too!”

“You were a captain too?” Tanaka questions, some of the mean mug looks he’d been sending Terushima sliding off his face. Terushima had guessed that Tanaka wasn’t quite as mean as he pretended, he was just trying to get a good read on his former captain's new boyfriend. Or maybe he really did want to fight Terushima.

“Yes, I played volleyball.” Terushima takes a sip of his beer, pretending like he hadn’t been saving that nugget of gold for the right opportunity. Even Tanaka forgets his fight-face as him and Nishinoya spat questions at him.

“He was good enough to be scouted, he spent two years in Barcelona playing volleyball.” Sawamura is grinning, a proud look that makes Terushima feel suddenly bashful.

“What? Really?” “That’s so cool!” “I can’t believe you played overseas!” “What position do you play?” “Do you still play?” “Do you want to play with us?” Questions were layered over more questions, too fast for Terushima to even think about answering and before long Tanaka and Nishinoya were scheming on how to get everyone to play a game.

Sawamura hummed happily, leaning against Terushima and Terushima let himself rest his head against the top of Sawamura’s head, nuzzling the soft hair. They were the same height so Terushima never had the opportunity before and he quite liked it.

Terushima watched as Sugawara made his way over to their small group, slightly amused by his determined look. All night various people had intercepted him and Oikawa each time they had attempted to make their way towards Sawamura, and Terushima wondered if the older man knew how thoroughly he was loved and protected by half the wedding party.

“Suga! Perfect timing!” Nishinoya shouted, bounding around Sugawara happily. Sugawara tried to make his way closer but was quickly pulled away by Tanaka and the ever-energetic Nishinoya as they asked him questions about make-shift volleyball nets and who at the wedding had a volleyball, they knew someone had to have brought one.

“Sawamura?” A gentle voice questions and Sawamura popped up, nearly giving Terushima a fat lip.

“Yamaguchi!” Sawamura greeted with a smile, making the freckled man smile back warmly, all nerves forgotten. “Yamaguchi, this is Terushima.” Yamaguchi is a couple centimeters taller than Terushima and Sawamura, and he’s lanky with his long hair pulled back into a simple bun he’s rather adorable looking, especially with those freckles.

“I didn’t mean to interrupt, but I saw Noya and Tanaka walk away and thought it was the opening I needed.” He had approached nervously, but clearly those nerves were gone in the face of Sawamura’s warm greeting. He stood a little straighter and made direct eye contact. Terushima was noticing that Sawamura had that innate ability to instill confidence in everyone who talked to him.

“You’re not interrupting anything.” Terushima shrugged.

“Dashi- oh hello Sawamura.” A man even taller than Yamaguchi approached before bowing quickly, and respectfully to Sawamura. Everything was quiet for a moment before Yamaguchi and Sawamura started laughing.

“Did you just bow to Sawamura?” Yamaguchi asked softly as the other man's face flushed red.

“It was instinct.” The man growled, face down turned in embarrassment.

“It’s alright! It was nice actually.” Sawamura’s shoulders were still shaking slightly from his laughter. “Kageyama, this is Terushima.” Terushima had to force himself not to choke on his beer as he looked at the newcomer in a different light. This was the one who broke poor Hinata Shouyou’s heart, and from the way Yamaguchi is leaning towards the taller man, it’s obviously who Kageyama developed feelings for. Kageyama certainly wasn’t unattractive, he was tall and there were clear muscles beneath his button down and slacks. The lighting was dim so Terushima could only see that his eyes were dark, his hair black and shaggy. But Terushima wasn’t seeing what could make his little ball of sunshine pine after Kageyama Tobio for years.

“Nice to meet you both.” Terushima announced happily, mentally willing both of them to spill all their secrets so he could understand the situation better. Kageyama looked as if he was going to bow again before he stopped himself and settled with a nod. Yamaguchi started to speak and Terushima watched Kageyama scan the room.

Terushima did his own scan, noting that there was a specific ball of energy missing. Hinata was small, probably easily lost in a crowd, but that ginger hair gave him away. Plus he always seemed to be jumping around, head bouncing above the crowd even if they were all considerably taller than him.

“Um- sorry, but I heard you arrived with Shouyou?” Yamaguchi asked, shifting his body just slightly towards Kageyama as the other stiffened. It looked like an instinctual move, something neither really noticed they were doing, as if offering comfort by their mere presence. Terushima also found it interesting that Freckles called Shouyou by his first name.

“Yeah, we came on the train together, he is made up of sugar, spice, and everything nice.” Terushima said with a friendly grin. He felt Sawamura lean into him, gently nudging him with his elbow and Terushima knew it was a warning to be nice. “He mentioned on the train he had an important call to make, so maybe he went to do that before it got too late?” Kageyama looked down, his face stoic. Terushima didn’t know if it was because he had heard a lot about Kageyama, or maybe he was just projecting, but Kageyama looked disappointed, his whole body seemed to deflate a little even though he stood just as rigid and tall as when he had first appeared.

“He’ll probably be the first one up for breakfast tomorrow.” Sawamura offered kindly. Figured that the ginger man was an early riser, probably was a morning person too. Kageyama seemed to pull himself together at that and nodded stiffly at Sawamura.

Terushima saw Sugawara walking with determination over to them, or to put it more correctly, to Sawamura. Terushima didn’t bother to stifle his yawn, he had worked at the garage in the morning the previous day and then bartended until three in the morning, he was a little tired so he turned towards Sawamura.

“I’m going to head to bed, you enjoy yourself.” Terushima bent down, brushing his lips over Sawamura’s temple and smiled when he got a happy hum against his throat. “It was nice meeting you.” Yamaguchi and Kageyama looked surprised as Terushima waved before walking away.

Terushima tells himself not to turn around, not to peek at something that he doesn’t yet fully understand, or might never completely comprehend, but he’s always had a hard time curbing his impulses, so of course he glances behind him. He looks just in time to see Sugawara placing a hand on Yamaguchi and Kageyama’s shoulders, both men jumping slightly before turning to Sugawara, even Kageyama’s scowl disappears a moment when he realizes who exactly is touching him. There’s clear admiration and respect on both of the younger men's faces as Sugawara says something that causes everyone to laugh around him, leaning towards him, even Sawamura is pulled in by Sugawara’s easy charm.

Terushima turns back around as Nishinoya and Tanaka barrel into the small, intimate group, everyone laughing like the old friends they are. On the other side of the bar Oikawa stands by Iwaizumi and two other men Terushima had been introduced briefly to, their sarcastic banter making Terushima believe he would get along with them just fine. Oikawa is clearly pouting, the other two men staring at him with stoic looks, but what Terushima finds interesting is the clear fondness on Iwaizumi’s face before he covers it up with a scowl and a remark Terushima can’t hear, but he see’s the dramatic wail from Oikawa.

Terushima was told that the rest of “the gang” would be trickling in all day the following day, and he wanted to get up early to meet everyone. Meeting Sawamura’s old friends and teammates was like getting a secret peek into Sawamura’s life, who he had been and how he became the person he is now.

“Shouyou?” Terushima questions in surprise at the huddled form near his room door.

“Hey!” Hinata shoved his phone into his pocket as he jumped up at the same time, wide smile genuine. “I was kind of hoping you had my bag?” He looked on the verge of a panic attack so Terushima nodded and showed him into his room, right to his bag by the door.

“There was a couple people looking for you.” Terushima decided to warn Hinata, but from the guilty look on the shorter man’s face he clearly knew. “Is that your plan, to avoid Kageyama and Yamaguchi the entire week?” If it was Terushima had no problem helping out, it might even be a fun and interesting game, but only if that’s what Hinata really wanted.

“No- well, I don’t think so at least.” Hinata grabbed a handful of his shirt, right above his heart, and twisted the fabric. He looked torn, Terushima guessed Hinata wasn’t really the type of person to avoid a problem. No, he was more like the type to barrel straight into it and beat it into submission. “You met them then?”

“Yes.” Terushima nodded before kicking off his shoes and walking further into the room, Hinata close behind him. “They’ve been together since high school?”

“That’s what I thought, but Suga said they didn’t start dating until last year.” Hinata set himself up by an outlet, plugging his charger into it before staring down at his blank phone. “He, Suga that is, said they wanted to talk to me themselves, but I’m not ready for that talk.” Terushima could only cringe at that. Trying to talk to an ex and their new significant other was difficult enough, but Terushima thought he would probably ignore Kageyama for the rest of his natural life if that had happened to him.

“You haven’t talked to new boyfriend yet?” Terushima asked and Hinata shook his head.

“My phone died, I always forget to charge it.” Hinata bounced on the balls of his feet, looking up at the ceiling and looking like he might be sick again.

“You know Shouyou, it’s okay if you can’t be friends with Kageyama.” Terushima said it because someone needed to, and unlike the people at this wedding, he had no allegiance towards Kageyama. He felt bad for the poor kid, sure, but that didn’t mean Shouyou should have to twist himself up in knots because of it. “It doesn’t make you a bad person.” Terushima was half-convinced Hinata Shouyou hadn’t done a bad thing in his entire life, but Terushima also could admit to himself that he tended to air on the side of dramatics.

“I miss being friends with Kageyama,” Hinata stopped bouncing and sighed, suddenly looking older than the high school student he appeared to be when he was bursting with barely contained energy and happiness. “I miss being friends with Yamaguchi too. I want to be friends with them again but what if it’s crazy awkward? What if I’m still in-love with him? I have a boyfriend now, you’re not allowed to be in love with other people if you’re dating someone!” Terushima laughed.

“Says who?” Terushima shrugged and waved off Hinata’s astonished look. “We can’t control how we feel, we can only control our actions. If you want to try and start up a new friendship with those two, then great! If not, then that’s fine too. You’re allowed to be a little selfish Shouyou, if you get bad feelings from them then it’s well within your right to not be friends with them.”

“How did you get so smart about all this?” Hinata asked and Terushima puffed out his chest in pride.

“Daichi.” They both laughed, but Terushima could tell Hinata half-believed it because Sawamura just gave off that feeling that he knew how to handle every situation. Then again Terushima had seen Sawamura after he had pulled a 16 hour shift at the hospital. 16 hour shift Sawamura was a confused and hilarious being. “You should go call new boyfriend, how’s he with advice?”

“Good, encouraging.” Hinata had a soft smile on his face and Terushima was happy the younger man had managed to find someone after the disaster with Kageyama. Hinata gathered his stuff, said a quick and loud goodbye before making his way out of the room.

\--------

Terushima walks out of the bathroom to find a disgruntled, sleepy looking Sawamura who has his eyes narrowed suspiciously like he’s not quite sure if he’s the real Terushima or he’s been replaced by three children standing on top of each other in a raincoat. Terushima thinks it’s probably one of the most adorable things about Sawamura, and he files it away for later use.

“Goodmorning sunshine.” Terushima isn’t usually a morning person, but then usually he wakes up alone and not snuggled up against the hottest man he’s ever had the pleasure of knowing.

Terushima had gone to bed pretty soon after Hinata had left, and had only been awoken briefly by hushed giggling and then the solid presence of Sawamura spooning up behind him. No awkward talk about who’d take the bed or saying how it was big enough for the both of them, just right down to business and cuddling for Sawamura Daichi. Terushima was not complaining in the least, waking up to the warmth of Sawamura, breath tickling the back of his neck and solid arms wrapped around him was probably one of the best experiences in Terushima’s 27 years of living.

“Someone was in our room.” Sawamura mumbled, fighting his way out of the covers before looking around, dark eyes narrowed.

“I think Tanaka and Nishinoya dropped you off?” Terushima was a heavy sleeper, the fact he woke up at all when they entered the room was surprising.

“Not good.” Sawamura came to stand in front of Terushima, still staring at him suspiciously.

“Daichi are you fully conscious right now?” Sawamura seemed to give it a lot of thought before slowly shaking, and then nodding his head. “Well, you’re adorable but we have to go get breakfast in 15 minutes so go shower and wake up.” Terushima couldn’t help but run his hand through Sawamura’s black hair, he kept it short and the bedhead just made it look slightly disheveled. Sawamura closed his eyes and leaned into the touch.

“You’re adorable.” Sawamura murmured, which just seemed like a great way to start the day to Terushima, who laughed and gently guided the older man into the bathroom.

Warning bells were blaring in Terushima’s head, which was rather surprising because he didn’t really think he had any sense of self-preservation. Part of him had hoped coming to this wedding would give him something to dislike about Sawamura, that he would see some petty, darker side brought out from being at his ex's wedding and Terushima could pull out his treacherous heart and show it that Sawamura isn’t that great.

Terushima had only been there one night but he knew he was in serious trouble because if anything, he liked Sawamura even more now than he had before. A small part of him hoped he would see some new, hidden mean part of Sawamura but the rest of him knew it was unlikely to happen.

Terushima had thought pretty lowly of Sugawara Koushi, who could break the heart of their best friend, especially when that best friend was one Sawamura Daichi, to date some seemingly self-absorbed flashy asshole? He thought Sugawara must be cruel and obsessed with status or looks, and if that was Sawamura’s best friend then Sawamura himself couldn’t be that great either. Except, from what Terushima had seen, Sugawara cared very little about status or looks and cared a great deal about the people around him. He had even checked with the staff of the inn, making sure the music wasn’t too loud and that everything was acceptable.

Not to mention the rest of the people Terushima had met, Sawamura and Sugawara’s group of friends. Even Tanaka, who had tried to intimidate Terushima, was only doing it on Sawamura’s behalf, and had even saved Terushima from what could have been a disastrous fall when he tripped over a stool.

Things just weren’t looking great for Terushima.

Sawamura walked out of the bathroom, looking much more awake and less suspicious. He also was wearing nothing besides a towel wrapped around his waist as he used another towel to dry his hair.

“That’s really unfair.” Terushima crowed dramatically, flopping back against the futon but keeping an eye on Sawamura’s bare, and slightly wet torso. Sawamura dropped the towel from his head, tossing it back into the bathroom before shooting a mock innocent look at Terushima.

“This old thing?” Sawamura asked, motioning to the towel. “Oh I’ve had this for years.” Terushima barked out a laugh as Sawamura grinned at him before making his way over to his bag.

“Honestly if you really want to show them what their missing, you should just stay in the towel.” Terushima turned on the futon, propping his head up in his hand to be able to get a better look at Sawamura. The one good thing about sleeping with Sawamura, besides the actual sex act itself, was that he could look all he’d like because Sawamura knew Terushima found him physically attractive. It was the mentally and emotionally attractive part Sawamura was in the dark about.

“You’re very flattering this morning.” Sawamura grinned over his shoulder at Terushima. “You’re making me blush.” He wasn’t blushing, but Sawamura with a blush was a nice sight too. Though Terushima didn’t mind the muscular, long length of back he was presented with now as Sawamura rooted through his bag, pulling this and that out before discarding it in a pile. Messy.

“Just being truthful, you are very nicely toned Doctor Sawamura.” Terushima finally decided to have pity on the other man and rolled to his feet before nudging Sawamura out of the way to go through his clothing.

“Okay let’s say for a second that I wanted to show my ex’s what they are missing, which I a hundred percent do not want to do, but if I did, may I point out the fact that one of my ex’s is dating an actual real life model?” Sawamura asked, eyebrow raised. “An actual, real life model who was a professional athlete until very recently. I’m sure Oikawa Tooru is more than nicely toned.”

“Oh he is, his calendar is up at the garage.” Terushima pushed clothes into Sawamura’s hands then sat back to watch Sawamura change. “But he looks exactly like a model.”

“Gorgeous and perfect?” Sawamura asked, raising an eyebrow at the reclining position Terushima had taken. Terushima shot Sawamura a challenging look and Sawamura met that look by dropping his towel.

“Made-up, and there’s a thing as too perfect.” Terushima tilted his head just a little, watching as Sawamura pulled on a pair of black boxer-briefs that fit nearly like a second skin. “Never a hair out of place, teeth too white, body without an ounce of hair on it.” Sawamura’s hair was sticking a bit up from his towel drying earlier, there was a spot of toothpaste on his bottom lip, near the corner of his mouth that he must have missed, and there was a fine dusting of hair over his chest, a darker patch leading right beneath his underwear like a trail Terushima wanted to follow.

“So you’re saying he’s too ridiculously good looking?” Sawamura asked with a skeptic look as he pulled on his jeans, a dark wash pair that were just a little tight, showing off his rather impressive thighs. Sawamura placed his hands on his hips, his jeans undone and hanging off his hips. “Is that even a thing?”

“I honestly can’t remember what we’re talking about but please put your clothes on otherwise we’re going to have a problem.” Terushima rolled to his feet as Sawamura sputtered next to him. They challenged each other quite frequently, but Terushima could honestly say he’d rather watch Sawamura put on clothes every day for the rest of his life than watch any other guy take their clothes off.

Before Terushima could walk away he found himself pressed up against the wall behind him, a solid and warm body pressed against him. Being nose-to-nose with a grinning Sawamura Daichi was probably one of Terushima’s favorite positions.

“What kind of problem?” Sawamura’s words were innocent but his body, pressing and moving against Terushima’s was anything but innocent. It had been two weeks since the last time they slept together, their schedules never matching up with enough time. Terushima had nearly suggestion sexting before he remembered they weren’t in a relationship.

“Why don’t you kneel down and I’ll show you?” Terushima asked, hands running through Sawamura’s damp hair before dragging his head closer, biting Sawamura’s bottom lip oh-so-gently in the way he knew the other man liked best.

There’s an erratic knocking on their door followed by the hesitant calls of both their names from the one person that could get Terushima to stop doing what they both so clearly wanted to do.

“Daichi’s just getting dressed Shouyou, we’ll be right out!” Terushima calls out because Sawamura is too busy groaning into Terushima’s shoulder to say anything. “He probably doesn’t want to head to breakfast alone.”

“I knew I shouldn’t have introduced you to him.” Sawamura grumbles, though they both know it’s a lie. They push apart, adjusting themselves and attempting to cool off so they don’t have to walk to breakfast with visible proof that nothing happened this morning, but they both clearly wanted it to.

“Morning!” Hinata chirped happily when Sawamura opened the door. Sawamura reached out and patted Hinata’s head. His usual attention-grabbing orange hair was covered by a dark blue beanie.

“Going incognito today?” Terushima asked, eyeing the beanie.

“Yes.” Hinata answers, causing the other two men to laugh. “I don’t want to confront them on an empty stomach! What if it’s all serious and my stomach growls? Don’t laugh, it’s happened before!”

“I know, that’s why I’m laughing!” Sawamura chuckled, smiling down Hinata.

“I’ve been meaning to ask, is everyone you know gay?” Terushima questioned with a grin, causing both of his companions to fall silent as they thought it over.

“I don’t know about Oikawa’s friends-” Sawamura started but Hinata interrupted by holding his hand up in the air and jumping in front of them. “Yes Hinata?” Sawamura deadpanned but the corner of his mouth was twitching upwards.

“I know about Oikawa’s friends!” Hinata cleared his throat as if he was about to complete a rather difficult maths problem. “Iwaizumi and Matsukawa are bisexual. Yahaba and Hanamaki are all about the guys. Shinji and Kindaichi are straight, while Kunimi is a cyborg.”

“Do you mean asexual and aromantic Hinata?” Sawamura asked.

“No, Matsukawa and Hanamaki definitely said he’s a cyborg.” Hinata began to walk backwards, Terushima and Sawamura following in amusement. “Don’t worry, he’s too sleepy to actually do any damage to the human race.”

“Naturally.” Sawamura shot Terushima a grin. “Oikawa has dated a lot of women too.”

“He said he loves women but after a while they all get bitter towards him because he’s prettier than they are.” Hinata said sagely. Terushima wondered briefly if people are just in the habit of telling little ball of sunshine Hinata everything, or if they just never notice he’s nearby when they are speaking.

“Is he a real person?” Terushima asked, referring to Oikawa.

“There’s a 50/50 chance we’re all just suffering from mass hallucination.” Sawamura shrugged and Hinata laughed.

“Narita is married, to a woman! But Kinoshita did just get a divorce, from a woman also.” They walked into the inn’s dining room, a breakfast buffet set up on the nearest wall that they all headed over to. Terushima noticed that there was already several people situated at a large, round table, Kageyama and Yamaguchi being two of those people. He could also tell by the sudden tension in Hinata’s shoulders he had definitely seen the other two people also.

“Poor Kinoshita.” Sawamura sighed as he started to load down a plate with more food that any human could possibly consume. Hinata’s pile was even bigger.

“Was it a bad divorce?” Terushima asked, only half paying attention because really, who could consume that much food but still be as small as Hinata?

 

“No, or I don’t think so, but he’ll have to deal with Noya and Tanaka trying to set him up with every available girl.” Sawamura answered and Terushima laughed. “Don’t laugh, I think the only reason Kinoshita got married in the first place was to avoid the blind dates they forced him to go on.”

“That bad?” Terushima asked, nudging them away from the food so there would still be some left over for the other guests.

“Yes.” Both Hinata and Sawamura said softly, horrified at past memories of bad set-ups.

“I moved to Tokyo to get away from them.” Sawamura clarified as they all sat down at the table, Hinata nestled in between a bright eyed and nearly vibrating Nishinoya and Sawamura, while Terushima took the seat on the other side of his fake-boyfriend.

“To get away from who?” Oikawa asked, all big smiles and dagger eyes.

“Noya and Tanaka’s blind dates.” Terushima confessed because he could see why Oikawa might think Sawamura was talking about him and Sugawara. Though Sawamura would never actually say such a thing.

“Hey! They weren’t that bad!” Nishinoya argued before zeroing in on Hinata.

“I have a boyfriend!” Hinata shouted, hands up defensively and Terushima watched Nishinoya visibly deflate before sitting up straight and nearly joined Hinata in his chair.

“A boyfriend? Have I met this young man? Why would you not bring him to meet your momma and papa, I thought we raised you better than that?” Nishinoya motioned to the empty chair beside him before realizing it was empty. “Wait, where’s Ryuu?”

“Didn’t you wake him up on your way here?” Sugawara asked, amused smile on his lips and Terushima noticed dimples he hadn’t see the night before. Of course Sugawara had dimples, because clearly he wasn’t adorable enough he needed dimples to add to the overall look that clearly pointed out that he was better looking than Terushima. Terushima stabbed his eggs before he felt Sawamura’s leg nudge his, giving a pointed look to his mutilated breakfast.

“No!” Nishinoya yelled, heartbroken as he shot up and out of the dining room.

“Thank you Suga.” Hinata gave him a soft smile, the interrogation of the new boyfriend suspended for now.

“I do look forward to meeting him in a couple days.” Sugawara said, friendly smile still in place but there was a sharp look in his eyes as he drank his coffee.

“No one has met new boyfriend yet?” Terushima asked, leaning around Sawamura to get a better look at the blushing Hinata. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Kageyama leaning forward, as if trying to catch Hinata’s attention, before Yamaguchi placed a hand on his boyfriends shoulder, settling him back into place.

“Um-” Hinata glanced around the table before looking up. “Technically you all know him I guess?” There was a long silence in which Terushima realized that no one had known this new piece of information.

“Shrimpyou, you’ve been holding out on us.” Oikawa was leaning forward now and Hinata was cowering under all the attention.

“Look who I found!” Nishinoya yelled loudly, too loudly, into the mostly empty dining room before dragging in a much larger, harassed looking man.

“I wasn’t exactly lost Noya.” The man mumbled, tanned cheeks turning a ruddy red.

“Asahi.” Sugawara stood up, looking pleased. “I didn’t think you could get here until tomorrow morning?” Terushima expected the ashy-haired man to hug the taller one, but he karate chopped his side instead, making the long haired man double over.

“Suga!” Both Sugawara and Nishinoya looked pleased.

“Your room probably isn’t ready yet!” Sugawara looked like he was gearing up for another hit but Nishinoya jumped in.

“Azumane can stay with me for tonight!” Nishinoya shouted. It was more of an order than an offer, and Azumane looked a little pale, but whether from the hit or the command Terushima didn’t know.

“That’s really okay-” Azumane tried but Oikawa was already up and speaking over him.

“How kind of Nishinoya!” Oikawa clapped his hands as if the whole thing was settled as Iwaizumi squeezed past the door, cuffing the back of Oikawa’s head.

“Too early for you to be yelling Trashykawa.” Iwaizumi muttered, making his way over to the buffet.

“Mean Iwa!” Oikawa complained but followed his friend over to the food. Terushima saw Iwaizumi’s back stiffen before relaxing quickly as Oikawa leaned against him, pointing out this food and that to Iwaizumi, who swore and grumbled in answer but grabbed the food that was pointed out.

Nishinoya dragged Azumane out of the dining room, probably to force the taller man into his room, and there was a chirp of greeting in the hallway before Tanaka entered, gathering up a large plate of food before sliding into Nishinoya’s previously occupied chair beside Hinata. Hinata visibly relaxed with his former upperclassman beside him, who grinned and slid a couple pieces of sausage onto Hinata’s plate.

Terushima looked down at his own plate but he stopped short. He had grabbed sausages of his own, hadn’t he? Did he eat them without realizing? He glanced over at Sawamura, who was happily talking to two lanky-looking men who Terushima had seen last night teasing Oikawa.

“What’s with the hat Hinata? Get another bad haircut?” Terushima’s attention was pulled back to Tanaka and Hinata.

“Another?” Terushima asked with interest.

“A couple years ago I let Ryuu cut my hair.” Hinata answered, looking quite pleased with the idea.

“Cut?” Tanaka laughed before miming that he had shaved Hinata’s head.

“You were bald?” Terushima asked, even more interested now. Terushima had dyed his hair every color in the rainbow, but the most adventurous cut he’d gotten was the undercut he had now.

“Yeah, my mom was really worried I’d catch cold so she made me 10 hats.” Hinata motioned to the beanie on his head. “I guess I kind of got use to wearing them?”

“Why did you let Tanaka shave your head?” Yamaguchi asked, voice clear and smile soft. Kageyama’s eyes didn’t waver from Hinata, who was doing a good job of looking at the couple without actually looking at them at all.

“I got stitches and they had to shave part of my hair to put them in, and it just looked stupid having one bald spot.” Hinata explained with a shrug. Terushima had known Hinata for less than a day but even he knew this explanation was far too short for the energetic man who had gone on a 10 minute tangent about his favorite bench to sit on in Tokyo during their train ride to the inn.

“You got stitches?” Kageyama spoke up for the first time, voice rough and low.

“Yeah,” Hinata shrugged, motioning vaguely to a spot on his head before shoving two sausages in his mouth at the same time. Kageyama visibly deflated.

“What happened?” Terushima asked, trying to lighten the mood and get the answers Kageyama so obviously wanted at the same time. Terushima looked down at his plate for a second, trying to locate his biscuit before seeing it was missing all together. He looked over at Sawamura, who noticed the staring and smiled at Terushima. “Are you stealing my food?” Terushima accused before Hinata could answer his previous question.

“What a weird thing to say.” Sawamura said, which wasn’t a no.

“You had a small mountain of food on your plate and you’re stealing my food!” Terushima knew now that it had to be Sawamura who was doing it. A capital offense in his book. “I could forgive the sausage but you took my biscuit.”

“Maybe you ate them without realizing it?” Sawamura actually had the gall to sound patronizing, his hand rubbing what should have been soothing circles on his back. “You know you’re not a morning person honey.”

“I am going to murder you, honey, steal my biscuits, where did you put them?” Terushima muttered before poking around at Sawamura’s pants pockets. Two biscuits and several sausages, wrapped in a napkin, fell to the ground and Terushima pointed with a triumphant look.

“I can explain.” Sawamura said, barely hidden amusement trilling through his voice. “What are you doing?”

“I’m calling Takeharu.” Terushima said as he pulled out his phone.

“No, not Futamata, please, I’ll get you more biscuits! I’ll get you all the biscuits.” Sawamura pleaded, half laughing but Terushima knew he was a little serious too. Sawamura and Futamata worked at the hospital together, Futamata was working his way quickly to being head nurse, he was friendly with the other nurses and Doctors alike. If Futamata didn’t like you then nobody liked you.

“Sausages too.” Terushima ordered and Sawamura nodded quickly before getting up. “And coffee!” Terushima grinned as he bent to pick up the now ruined food off the ground. Messy Sawamura was likely to forget it was there.

“Wow.” Terushima nearly banged his head on the underside of the table as he quickly sat up to see what had caused the exclamation to see that everyone was staring at him.

“How long have you two been dating?” Oikawa asked, Sugawara was turned in his seat to study Sawamura who was making a coffee for Terushima over at the buffet.

“A couple months, but we’ve known each other for about three years now.” Terushima answered as honestly as he could. Their plan had been to stick as closely to the truth as possible, but he was a little confused as to why everyone was staring at him like they were. “One of the nurses who works with Daichi at the hospital is my roommate, we’ve been friends since middle school. And I work at a bar close to the hospital so I know most of the staff.” Terushima explained further, though he wasn’t quite sure why.

“Ignore the busybodies, they are just thrilled to know that you make Daichi happy.” Iwaizumi explained, elbowing Oikawa in the side which earned him a loud yelp and a sad, puppy-dog eyes from the former athlete-turned-model. Terushima felt his face heat up and he played with his tongue ring nervously. Terushima hadn’t noticed anything different about Sawamura’s behavior, they were always teasing each other, being a bit dramatic and laughing together.

“Tongue ring!” Tanaka yelled and then there was laughter and light ribbing.

“Your coffee, m’lord.” Sawamura placed the coffee, and various foods in front of Terushima before taking his own seat. Terushima stared at the coffee before looking over at Sawamura who had gotten a bowl of fruit for himself. Sawamura grabbed a strawberry before meeting Terushima’s eyes in surprise at finding the other man looking at him.

Terushima laced his fingers with Sawamura’s free hand, noting how warm the other man's hand was. Sawamura smiled, squeezing the hand he held and looking appreciative though Terushima didn’t exactly know what he was thankful for.

"Ohoho, something smells good." A raspy voice announced from the dining room door. Sawamura's fingers tightened around Terushima's, nearly painfully and Terushima knew who had just showed up to the wedding. He turned and was surprised, Kuroo Tetsurou wasn't at all what Terushima had expected.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter we get some Kuroo and Kenma action! Thank you for all your kind words, and I hope you enjoyed this chapter (plus here's to hoping you enjoy any future chapters too!)
> 
> The two lanky men without-names yet are Matsukawa and Hanamaki.


	4. Chapter Four

Everyone has a type, Terushima knows this to be a true fact of life. A person might veer from that type, but even in friendship you tend to stick close to the archetype of the sort of person you like. It’s not a conscious decision. Terushima is loud, impulsive, and instinctual and he tends to befriend and find those similar qualities attractive in other men. Bobata Kazuma might be a little calmer in his everyday life than Terushima, but he is probably even more impulsive and louder than Terushima when the time comes. Terushima is almost always physically attracted to guys like Sawamura. Not too tall or too short, about his own height, with plenty of muscles, a great smile, and thick thighs. Terushima actually found Iwaizumi Hajime attractive, especially after Iwaizumi had relaxed enough to smile genuinely.

After meeting Sugawara Koushi, Terushima couldn’t really understand how Sawamura found Terushima attractive. Sugawara was all things soft. Light hair, pale skin, soft eyes, graceful smile and just a splash of mischievousness to keep things interesting. Terushima had naturally dark brown hair, the same color as the shaved portion of his undercut, while the longer portion on top was dyed brown. He had dark eyes and while his skin tone was naturally lighter than Sawamura’s, he was definitely darker toned than Sugawara.

Then Kuroo Tetsurou showed up and blew every preconceived notion about types and how Sawamura choose partners out of the water. Kuroo was nearly the completely opposite of Sugawara. He was all harsh angles and darkness to Sugawara’s soft curves and angelicness. Kuroo had the most ridiculous-looking, spiky black hair and he was all lanky limbs and long torso.

“What the fuck is your type?” Terushima whispered to Sawamura, causing the other man to laugh and the tension to slowly drain out of his stiff-as-a-board body.

“Troublemakers.” Sawamura said apologetically and Terushima really couldn’t argue with that. Terushima had been called a troublemaker several times, especially as a teenager. Kuroo certainly looked like he’d cause a lot of trouble, and the more Terushima knew Sugawara, the more he realized that the other man was a bit impish.

“Should I go pull the fire alarm then?” Terushima asked, still speaking quietly as Oikawa and Kuroo hugged it out at the entrance. Sawamura laughed, the rest of the tension leaving his body as he leaned forward and rested his forehead against Terushima’s shoulder.

“Where’s Kenma?” Terushima heard Oikawa ask, moving Kuroo out of the way as if he’d find the missing person hiding behind him.

“He’s putting our stuff away in our room.” Kuroo said with a grin. “The train ride was crowded.” Kuroo said with a shrug, as if this explained everything. By the way most of the other people nodded, it did explain the missing Kozume Kenma.

“Go say hi Hinata, he’ll be happy to see you.” Sawamura said, lifting his head to smile at the ginger next to him, who was nearly vibrating out of his seat. He looked hesitantly up at Sawamura, as if he was betraying his former captain in some way. “Go, you look like you need to piss!”

“Thank you!” Hinata bolted out of his chair and Kageyama stood up, eye brows furrowed but Hinata was already out of the room, calling a quick greeting to Kuroo behind him, who stuck half his body out of the dining room to shout the room number at Hinata.

“Fuck he’s fast!” Terushima said, louder than he meant to. The dining room was silent before most people started to laugh.

“Nothing gets Hinata moving quicker than the prospect of greeting friends.” Sugawara said with a smile.

“Or if someone mentions volleyball.” Tanaka spoke up, still laughing.

“God don’t say that word or we’ll all be sweating and playing 10 sets each.” Kuroo shook his hand as if shooing away the word volleyball. “No one can resist that kids puppy dog eyes.” Yamaguchi had successfully pulled Kageyama back down into his seat, and he rubbed soft circles into the other mans back.

“It’s a good thing he’s a good person or he could convince some people to do some real bad stuff.” Tanaka cackled, as if this was a great idea. “I’m going to go see what’s taking Noya and Asahi so long, Daichi do you want to come say hi?” Tanaka was standing and Sawamura stood, gathering up his dirty dishes and shooting a thankful look in the other mans direction.

“Yuuji?” Sawamura asked, eyebrows raised and Terushima stood up, smiling brightly to follow them out.

“You know I love me some Asahi.” Terushima said honestly.

“You’ve met Asahi?” Tanaka asked and Sawamura rubbed the back of his neck nervously as Terushima laughed.

“He came to town for Daichi’s last birthday.” Terushima explained with a grin before tossing an arm around Tanaka’s shoulder at the interested look the man shot him.

“Drunk Daichi is a personal favorite Daichi of mine, but drunk Daichi with drunk Asahi is so otherworldly perfect, it’s hard to put into words.” Terushima grinned wider. “So let me say in it poem form, a poem by drunk Daichi and drunk Asahi if I may.”

“Please don’t.” Sawamura whimpered behind them. Kuroo shot a smirk at Sawamura as they passed by and Sawamura nodded back before they walked out of the dining room.

“They composed poetry?” Tanaka asked, shooting a look back at Sawamura in amusement and disbelieve.

“This is unfair, Yuuji is a bartender and he kept giving us free drinks.” Sawamura pushed his way in between them, knocking Terushima’s arm off the other man’s shoulders.

“You were tipsy before you even showed up to my bar!” Terushima defended and everyone laughed. That had been right around the same time Terushima and Sawamura had started to become friends with some really great benefits. Before that night Sawamura had been nearly careful around Terushima, but that night, tipsy and then a little drunk then a lot drunk, Sawamura had dropped his guard and flirted heavily with Terushima. Terushima might have missed out on a lot of tips that night because he practically ignored the other patrons, but it was well worth it.

“Asahi helped Daichi write sonnets to me.” Terushima grinned.

“They were about you, not to you!” Sawamura tried to defend himself but it was no use. There had been a couple sonnets about a short man with lightning in his hair too, and Terushima had never learned of the man Azumane Asahi had so obviously been in love with until he had showed up to the inn. Terushima had thought it had been a one-sided love, but judging by the small interaction that morning between Nishinoya and Azumane, it clearly hadn’t been one-sided.

“You doing okay Daichi?” Tanaka asked after a moments hesitation, glancing at Terushima a little worriedly as if he didn’t know if it was okay to bring up past relationships in front of a new relationship. Terushima turned to Sawamura, hoping that his distraction and Tanaka’s quick exit had helped the older man.

“Yeah, it was-” Sawamura waved them off. “It wasn’t the first time I had seen him since the- you know.” Sawamura shrugged but his shoulders stayed tensed.

Sawamura had near a decade to get over Sugawara Koushi, and a solid friendship with the other man to fall back on, but Kuroo Tetsurou had been the one to help Sawamura get over Sugawara in the years that followed the break up. From what Terushima understood, Sawamura had thrown himself into his studies and college volleyball team to the point of exhaustion, before Kuroo popped up, demanding Sawamura take care of himself and then later on taking the overworked pre-med student out on dates to get him out of his tiny apartment.

“I don’t understand how everyone’s so cordial!” Terushima shouted, half trying to distract Sawamura and half actually confused about the situation. Sawamura smiled at Tanaka’s surprised look.

“Yuuji’s first serious relationship ended up with realizing his so-called boyfriend had been cheating on him the entirety of their relationship.” Sawamura explained, having heard the story several times, most of them from Terushima but probably a couple from Futamata also. It had been the reason Terushima didn’t believe in monogamy, though Sawamura had obviously changed his views on that.

“We had been friends before we dated, and we had the same group of friends too but afterwards it was like a nasty divorce. People chose sides, names were called, one car was keyed.” Terushima had been angry, fueled by hurt when he keyed his ex-boyfriends precious car. “Seeing all of you, it makes me feel childish.”

“No one was betrayed like you were Yuuji.” Sawamura said, placing a warm hand between Terushima’s shoulder blades. Terushima was glad to see Tanaka frown at Sawamura from his other side.

“You don’t consider yourself betrayed?” Tanaka asked hesitantly.

“No, of course not.” Sawamura shook his head before smiling softly at both of them. “Neither of them did anything with another person while we were actually dating. They both waited a while after we had broken up to start dating who they are with now. It’s not like Suga fell in love with Oikawa while we were dating, and Kuroo- he had always been in love with Kozume, it just took Kozume a long time to realize he loved Kuroo back.” Sawamura shrugged again.

“You’re too good for this world Sawamura Daichi.” Terushima said, reaching back to grab hold of the warm hand on his back and lace their fingers together. Tanaka nodded in agreement. “So where is-” Terushima is about to ask where Nishinoya’s room is but they come to the main entrance of the inn to spot Nishinoya staring down at the floor, an intense frown on his face as Azumane talks to the woman behind the front desk, looking desperate.

“Noya!” Tanaka greets like he hadn’t seen the man in years. Nishinoya looks up, frown breaking into a grin as the two men do some long, weird, complicated handshake that ends up in a bear hug.

“What’s going on?” Sawamura asked after the handshake was done but the men were still hugging.

“Asahi won’t share a room with me, he’s trying to get a room himself but they are all booked.” Nishinoya swallows heavily, his adams apple bobbing as he looks over at Azumane. There’s such a tortured look on his face, so honest and open it would be comical if it wasn’t so sad. “He’s asking around to see if there’s anywhere else to stay, but I know he doesn’t have the money to do that. I told him he doesn’t have to pay for half of my room either, he can just stay there but-” Nishinoya’s shoulders leap high then fall down quickly in a jerky motion of a shrug.

Sawamura claps Nishinoya on those sad, sad shoulders before striding over to the taller man, greeting him with a punch in the side that makes the woman behind the desk look over them worriedly.  When Sawamura starts speaking the worried look eases out of the woman’s face before Sawamura drags the taller man a little ways away and starts speaking to the dejected looking Azumane.

“It’s just for one night, I know I snore and I move a lot but I told him I’d even sleep on the floor across the room from him.” Nishinoya sounds desperate and Terushima doesn’t understand why they aren’t together if they so obviously love each other. By the look on Tanaka’s face, he has the same thoughts.

“Don’t worry, Dadchi will talk some sense into the weepy giant.” Tanaka said with confidence, grabbing Nishinoya’s shoulder and yanking him around a bit before the shorter man stood up to his full, and rather unimpressive, height.

“Right!” Nishinoya placed his hands on his hips before he began to bounce in place. “I’m going to go clean up my room real quick!” And then he was off like a canon.

“I’m sorry, but did you say ‘Dadchi’?” Terushima asked, trying to sound innocent but by the look on Tanaka’s face he was well off his mark.

“Please don’t tell him I said that.” Tanaka pleads causing Terushima to cackle in pure glee.

“Of course not.” Terushima is grinning because otherwise he’d be on the floor, lamenting over the man who was single handedly ruining his life. Dadchi, said plainly, and Nishinoya had accepted its meaning so quickly that the shorter man probably called him that too. Dadchi, because he was over giving a lecture and pep talk all rolled into one to his soft-hearted friend. Dadchi because Tanaka and Nishinoya had full, complete, unwavering confidence that he would get done whatever he set out to do.

“Where did Noya go?” Sawamura asked as he dragged Azumane back over to the small group.

“He’s cleaning his room in preparation.” Terushima answered, dodging low to Azumane’s downcast field of vision. “Good morning my gentle giant, flannel looks quite nice on you.” Azumane stutters and blushes, but he’s stopped looking so dejected so Terushima calls that a win.

“He shouldn’t- he doesn’t have to clean- I can, it doesn’t matter to me.” Azumane stutters out and Terushima wants to tuck him into his arms and maybe get him drunk because the tall man becomes confident in very odd things when he’s had a bit of alcohol in him. Yet even Terushima admits that 10 in the morning is a little early for booze.

“Come on big man, let’s go before he starts asking around for a vacuum.” Tanaka is tugging the larger man down the hallway.

“You’re a good dad.” Terushima ruffles Sawaumura’s hair, earning a glare and a proud grin all rolled into one. “We’ve got some time to kill, want to finish what we started?” Sawamura’s cheeks flush as he glances around, checking to make sure no one else from the wedding party is around, before nodding and they are walking down the hall like pair of over enthusiastic teenagers.

\-----

“So what’s the deal with Asahi and Nishinoya?” Terushima asked once he’s gotten his breath back, once they’ve cleaned themselves off and the sweat has dried on their skin. Terushima only speaks after he’s sure none of the feelings he had worked so hard to hide, to lock away inside of himself, won’t come spilling out when he opens his mouth. Those same feelings that press against their mental cages when Sawamura is above him, naked and kissing him and pressing down on him.

Terushima is quite aware that sex does not necessarily negate love. He’s gone years without loving the guys he’s had sex with, but what he is now aware of is that sex with love is a whole- something, he’s not quite sure how to put it into words. He doesn’t want to put it into words because this is all of Sawamura he will ever have, and putting it into words and phrases and unspoken sentences will just make it hurt more when it eventually ends.

Because Terushima knows it will eventually end. Friends with benefits might work now for Sawamura, but if he’s learned anything from this whole wedding business is that Sawamura was meant for monogamy. He was built for long term relationships with a shared house and adopted dogs and lazy Sunday mornings.

So instead of letting those crushing feelings brought on by the thought of future rejection, the moment when Sawamura meets someone he wants to spend the rest of his life with, he changes the subject. He changes it to Sawamura’s friends because that’s who he cares about the most, cares more about them then he does about his own well being. That’s why when Sugawara and Kuroo broke up with him, moved on, Sawamura didn’t fight for them, because he wanted their happiness over his own.

Sawamura might never know it, but that’s what Terushima wants. It will hurt like hell when Sawamura finally finds that perfect person for him, but Terushima wants that. He wants Sawamura’s happiness, even at the cost of his own.

“It’s complicated.” Sawamura said with a sad twist of his lips.

“What’s so complicated about them loving each other?” Terushima asked. “It’s not like Iwaizumi being in love with Oikawa.” Sawamura looked like he got whiplash from turning his head so fast to Terushima. “I knew it!” Terushima had guessed, had known Iwaizumi either had to be in love with Oikawa or Sugawara.

“This is like a Korean drama to you, isn’t it?” Sawamura asked without any heat. Terushima felt his cheeks warm as he played with his tongue ring. Not many people knew of Terushima’s Korean drama obsession.

“But I’m right, aren’t I?” Terushima asked, grinning slightly as he rolled over onto his stomach and was subsequently nestled right up to Sawamura’s bare side.

“Asahi comes from a really traditional family, he went to work for his dads company even though he hates every minute of it. I think the only thing he’s ever done that his parents don’t approve of is grow his hair long.” Sawamura was staring up at the ceiling of their room, deep frown on his face but Terushima knew Sawamura well enough to know he would never advocate against someone’s parents. Sawamura lost his own parents when he was 8, and he was raised by his grandparents. Becoming a doctor had been what they wanted of Sawamura, and he had gladly followed that path. Luckily they didn’t seem too bothered about the homosexual aspect of Sawamura’s being, otherwise the guy might force himself into a relationship with a women and all parties would be miserable.

“So being gay isn’t allowed?” Terushima asked, nudging Sawamura’s arm into a specific position so he could rest his head on his bicep.

“It is not talked about.” Sawamura sighed, a soft defeated sound. “They set him up with a family friend's daughter, they’ve been sort of dating for a couple years now. They’ll expect them to get married soon, start giving them grandchildren. The only acceptable reason they haven’t yet is because she’s a couple years younger than Asahi, and is getting her masters currently.”

“What the fuck.” Terushima muttered into Sawamura’s arm, frowning deeply and trying to find some way out of that situation but it clearly wasn’t going to happen. “Nishinoya knows all this then?”

“Yes, they’ve gotten into some pretty nasty fights about it too.” Sawamura turned onto his side, curling his warm body into Terushima’s, as if he needed the comfort. Terushima reached out and gently traced the rather nice bone structure of Sawamura’s face, who sighed softly and closed his eyes. “Noya wants to be there for him, even if they can’t be together, but they slept together once. I don’t know exactly what happened but both of them felt horrible after, Asahi is technically engaged to this other woman, who from what I hear is a good person, and he feels like he cheated on her and made Noya an unwilling accomplice in it.”

“Well that’s a lot more messed up then I thought, I just thought they were being stubborn or something petty like that.” Terushima wanted to cuddle them close, he wanted to solve their problems and he’d only known Nishinoya for half a day, and only knew Azumane from one drunken night and a fuzzy morning after. He couldn’t imagine how Sawamura felt, dejected and useless.

“Stubborn does describe both of them, even Asahi.” Sawamura turned his head and gently bit the fleshy part of Terushima’s palm. Terushima’s heart gave a slow _thump_ , as if it had actually flipped over in his chest at the gentle action.

“And Iwaizumi?” Terushima asked as Sawamura studied him with half lidded eyes, as if they hadn’t just gotten their rocks off fifteen minutes prior. “Iwaizumi?” Terushima prodded again, his voice a little more breathy than he’d like to admit.

“I don’t know that story,” Sawamura shifted even closer, nearly laying on top of Terushima, who was still laying on his stomach. “Hajime and I were on the same volleyball team in college, but I stopped playing because I needed to focus on my studies. I was a solid player, good on defense, but Iwaizumi was even better.”

“You Karasuno boys, it’s the first thing you all talk about each other, volleyball as if that will tell me everything I need to know. Shitty people can be good at volleyball too.” Sawamura laughed, and Terushima bit down on his tongue to avoid groaning because the other man was pressed up against him, his belly vibrating with the laughter against Terushima’s side.

“Hajime and Oikawa are childhood friends, they live pretty close to each other and their mothers are friends too. From what I’ve heard Oikawa dated _a lot_ of women in high school and Iwaizumi had been in-love with him long before that, but he had written him off as straight.” Sawamura was speaking directly into Terushima’s ear, which they both knew was a sensitive spot for the younger man.

“That’s all you know?” Terushima asked after a long moment of silence.

“Hajime didn’t want to ruin their friendship so he never told Oikawa, I think Oikawa has to know.” Sawamura rolled right on top of Terushima, stealing the breath from his lungs, but the pressure of his body disappeared a moment later as Sawamura continued rolling, right to his feet. “He plays the fool but he’s very observant. Him and Suga make a dangerous pair because of that reason.”

“Daichi!” Terushima tosses a pillow at Sawamura’s bare arse as the other man laughs and walks into the bathroom. Horrible teasing man. “You don’t think Oikawa ever had feelings for Iwaizumi?” Terushima asked after pulling on some clothes, when Sawamura had exited the bathroom.

“No, I think sometimes it’s easy to get platonic feelings mixed up with romantic ones, especially when you’ve known someone that long.” Sawamura drops the shirt he had been wearing earlier, the navy v-neck as his fingers brush over the mark Terushima’s mouth had left. It wasn’t really Terushima’s fault that Sawamura had such nice collarbones. “Hajime definitely feels strongly about Oikawa, and him being with Suga probably- it’s probably not exactly the happiest Hajime has ever felt, but he’s tough. He’ll pull himself together, and he’ll be happy because Oikawa is happy.”

“You are all so nice.” Terushima said, as if it was a bad thing but he was only half serious.

“Sometimes you don’t end up with your first love, or your second, or even your third or fourth. You just have to pick yourself up and move on because what else can you do? Be upset all the time? Let it invade and ruin every aspect of your life?” Sawamura shook his head before grabbing a navy henley that looked enough like his other shirt that not too many people would question it, plus it hid the marks Terushima had made. Sawamura wasn’t too upset about the marks, since he had made several himself.

“How evolved of you.” Terushima sniffed in mock disdain as he ran a hand through his hair, trying to get it into some semblance of order.

“If you get stuck in the past you can’t see the future properly.” Sawamura’s tone was unusually serious, those warm chocolate eyes staring directly into Terushima’s. Terushima’s heart seemed to be beating unnecessarily loud in the suddenly silent room.

“Also I heard nailing your ex with water balloons from a rooftop also helps.” If Terushima’s voice is a little more high pitched than usual, well, that’s perfectly normal he rationalized.

“Please don’t tell anyone I did that.” The intense look is gone as quickly as it came and Sawamura is tugging Terushima closer by the belt loops on his jeans. “It was a moment of weakness.”

“Drunken weakness, drunken awesome weakness that led to me liking you a lot more.” It had been about a year after knowing Sawamura that they had been hanging out on Futamata’s roof of his apartment building. They were filling a kiddie pool with water balloons because Terushima had thought it was a particularly good idea at the time. There might have been alcohol involved.

“You didn’t like me before that?” Sawamura asked, a slight pout visible on his handsome face.

“I did but you seemed so damn perfect it was nerve wrecking being around you!” Terushima shook him lightly, causing the pout to disappear and be replaced by a smile. They had heard a loud laugh, that same ‘ohoho’ that Terushima had heard this morning. Sawamura had stiffened, stared at the water balloons for a long moment before grabbing a couple and hurling them over the side of the building.

Futamata had pulled Sawamura down as loud curses and yelling came from below. They had all quickly retreated back to Futamata’s apartment where Terushima had made Sawamura a crown out of bottle caps and dubbed him King of the Night.

“It made you feel better though, didn’t it?” Terushima asked, though he knew Sawamura felt guilty for pelting Kuroo in a hail of water balloons. “For all of your peace, love, and forgiveness attitude he still hurt you and as far as I’m concerned he’s lucky they weren’t filled with something worse than water.”

“Okay it was- it wasn’t my greatest moment but it did help me move on.” Sawamura was smiling now, past guilt forgotten. They weren’t even sure the balloons had even hit Kuroo, they had been drunk and Sawamura had just flung them over the side without actually looking. It also made something soften inside Terushima, as if he wasn’t already a melted marshmallow of love and adoration for Sawamura Daichi. Terushima thought briefly of trying to harden himself against Sawamura, try to go back to being the person he was before he fell down this rabbit hole, but he finds he likes Wonderland a little too much to go back to the real world.

They walked out of their room together, a comfortable warm silence wrapped around them only to be broken by Hinata bounding down the hall towards them.

“There you are!” There’s a man behind Hinata, following at a safe distance. He’s a little taller than the ball of energy in front of him, but he’s hunched over on himself. His dark brown hair is pulled back in a loose little pony tail, small pieces falling out and the ends ombre out into blonde. “Oh! This is Kozume Kenma, Kenma this is Terushima Yuuji!” Hinata introduces them, looking a little pleased and a bit nervous.

“Nice to meet you.” Terushima says honestly, though it’s a little surprising. This is Kozume Kenma? The childhood friend Kuroo Tetsurou loved and left Sawamura Daichi for? Kozume meets his eyes for a brief minute before they scatter elsewhere. Terushima can’t help but love Hinata a little more, it’s like the ginger haired man gathers every socially awkward, nervous person he can find close to him and makes them feel comfortable and loved.

“You too.” Kozume’s voice is soft, but there’s a lilt to it that makes Terushima believe he’s amused. “Hello Sawamura.”

“Hello Kozume, you grew your hair out again.” Kozume nodded, looking slightly pleased that Sawamura noticed. “He shaved it all off when Tanaka shaved off Hinata’s.” Sawamura explained quickly to Terushima.

“It was so cool!” Hinata beamed, throwing a sunny, proud smile over at Kozume who looked away with a quiet ‘it was no big deal’. Before the conversation could continue Kuroo popped around the corner, a smirk in place and his eyes lighting up when he saw them all gathered in the hall. Long fingers graze Kozume’s elbow lightly, a natural act that neither of them really seems to realize happens.

“Just the people I was hoping to see.” Kozume’s light brown, nearly yellow eyes glance up at Kuroo, holding his gaze for a long moment before nodding. “Da-Sawamura, can I talk to you a minute?” The name slip makes the air a little tense, and Terushima wonders if he had done it on purpose. Someone, Terushima couldn’t remember who now, had called Kuroo the Provocation Expert.

“Shouyou, do you want to see the new game I’m working on?” Kozume asked softly. Hinata looked hesitant, his eyes resting on Sawamura before moving to Terushima, who gives him a happy smile.

“Sure! I want to watch you play it.” Hinata chirps happily, following Kozume down the hall. Terushima turns to Sawamura, because clearly this isn’t a ‘I need to talk to you and your new boyfriend’ type of talk.

“I’m going to head to the store down the road, do you want anything?” Terushima asked, a different question in his eyes that he hopes Sawamura can read.

“I’m okay.” Sawamura’s fingers trace a line down Terushima’s back, light but he can feel the pressure, feel each individual digit and the message he’s conveying.

“Milk bread it is!” Terushima announces happily, grin widening when Sawamura gags because he’s one of those weird people who don’t enjoy sweets. Terushima turns to Kuroo, who has been watching their exchange with clever eyes. “Don’t upset him.” Terushima drops all pretenses, all happy smiles and goofy grins. He doesn’t bother with threats or trying to make himself look bigger or stronger. Terushima doesn’t do any of that because he doesn’t need to, he believes that Kuroo Tetsurou, no matter if he is the Provocation Expert, does not want to hurt Sawamura any more than he already has. Except Terushima also wants Kuroo to know that Sawamura is protected.

It’s an odd feeling and Terushima walks away before he can say anything more embarrassing or see the reaction of Kuroo or Sawamura. No matter how they pretended Terushima knew he had no claim, no right over Sawamura. Even if they were actually dating, Terushima still wouldn’t have had a problem with Kuroo and Sawamura talking, even if they did it in privacy. But the wave of protectiveness that nearly drowned Terushima had been surprising, too shocking to deny as the words tumbled out of his mouth.

“Terushima!” He had only made it out the front doors of the inn before he heard his name being called. He turned to see Sugawara and Oikawa making their way over to him, fingers entwined and twin happy looks on their faces. Oikawa was wearing some hideous plaid barf green and mustard yellow sweater that should have made him look ridiculous, but somehow with the windswept hair and the dark frame glasses and the satisfied twist of his lips, he just looked good. Sugawara was more subdued in blues but no less beautiful for it.

“How is the happy couple?” Terushima asked, shoving his hands into his pockets and plastering a smile on his face.

“Horrible, the flowers are all wrong-” Oikawa started to tick off things that were going wrong but Sugawara waved him off, successfully cutting off the taller man with a light tug on their entwined hands.

“Ignore him, he’s happiest when there are things to complain about.” Sugawara teased lightly before stepping closer to Terushima. “I’ve actually been meaning to talk to you but someone always seems to need my attention when I make my way over to you.” Sugawara’s impish smile says that he was quite aware what his friends were doing.

“What a strange occurrence.” Terushima feels himself relaxing because he knows what is about to come, and he knows it’ll hurt but he can’t let any of that show. He has been through ‘the talk’ with other people's friends and family members. The you’re not good enough, you better treat him right or we’ll hurt you talks. He was surprised it hadn’t happened yet, even more surprised that it was going to come from Sawamura’s ex.

“I just wanted to thank you.” All the air rushes out of Terushima’s lungs at that, somehow feeling like a physical blow even though he had been expecting the opposite of that.

“What?” Terushima wishes he could find something clever to say but he’s massively confused. He had expected threats and subtle digs, not a thank you.

“I- no, that’s not really right. We all want to thank you, everyone who knows Daichi- everyone who is here is really happy that he found you.” Sugawara is smiling and his eyes are suspiciously glossy. Oikawa is running smooth circles down his fiance's back. “You said you’ve known each other for a couple years, right? And you’ve been dating, what is it, about six months now?”

“That’s about right.” Terushima confirms softly, and somehow it doesn’t feel like as big of a lie as it did the first time.

“For so long all I had from Daichi was a couple carefully worded e-mails, and I know it’s my fault, I’m not trying to garner sympathy or place blame anywhere else.” Sugawara took a deep breath, grabbing the fabric of his sweater right above his heart. “But a little over a year ago I sent him a picture of my new niece through a text, not expecting anything back but he did, and he continued texting me. I invited him to our wedding and I didn’t hear back from him, and I thought I had messed everything up again. Honestly I panicked, I called him at an unfair hour and he picked up. He said he’d come and he was bringing someone with him, right around the time you two started dating.” Sugawara hides his face under his hand and Oikawa steps forward.

“Koushi?” Oikawa asked softly.

“Sorry, this isn’t- god, I’m happy, I swear I am. I’m just a really ugly crier.” Sugawara apologizes, wiping at his face with his sleeve before looking up at Terushima again. “We were all so curious to see who he’d show up with, Asahi was the only one who had met you and he had been drunk nearly the whole experience. Daichi, I’ve never seen him look as relaxed as he does around you. He’s always had this weight on his shoulders, like he has to be this solid rock for everyone else, but around you he’s just-” Sugawara hits Oikawa, trying to find the words.

“A man.” Oikawa shrugs. “I’ve never seen him joke around with anyone like he does with you.” Terushima’s heart is fit to burst, and he can’t help feeling a sense of elation even though he knows this is all a lie. Maybe they aren’t actually together, but it doesn’t change what Sugawara and Oikawa are saying, that somehow troublemaker Terushima Yuuji has helped powerhouse Sawamura Daichi.

“He’s happy.” Sugawara repeats before stepping forward and hugging Terushima, tight. “Thank you Terushima.” Oikawa pulled Sugawara back and they both looked vaguely embarrassed.

“Come on Weepywara, stop crying all over Sawamura’s new boyfriend, we’ll never live it down if we scare him off.” Oikawa grins at Terushima, as if challenging the other man to be afraid of them, to try and run away from Sawamura. Oikawa drags Sugawara off back into the inn and Terushima walks quickly away, glancing around to make sure he’s alone before bringing out his phone.

“I fucked up Takeharu, I fucked up so bad.” Terushima said in lieu of a greeting to Futamata.

“On a scale of one to-”

“A thousand, a billion- I don’t know, whatever the highest number is!” Terushima steps behind a large cherry blossom tree, one of the ones lining the road that leads to the inn. “Daichi’s friends really like me.”

“I thought that was the point?” Futamata questions.

“Yes! Except I’m actually in love with Daichi and they are crying and thanking me for making him happier than they’ve ever seen him except it’s all some big lie, except for the fact that I would literally do anything to actually make that man happy.” Terushima rushes out, crouching down behind the large trunk as if he can hide from his feelings. “For fucks sake Takeharu, I’m literally kneeling behind a tree with cherry blossoms falling around me talking about my love for a guy who is my friend. How the hell did my life become some kind of romantic manga?”

“Um-” Futamata said helpfully. “Do you realize you just said you loved Sawamura, multiple times? When did this happen? I thought it was a crush!”

“I thought so too but apparently I’m a fucking idiot!” Terushima let himself fall onto his arse and stared up at the canopy of pink above him.

“I thought Bobata was just being dramatic when he said this was a bad idea but apparently we’re both idiots and he knew all along.” Futamata sighed loudly. “Have you thought about telling him?”

“Takeharu, the guy is trying to get through the wedding of his first love who is marrying someone else while his second love struts around with his childhood sweetheart.” Terushima blew a blossom off of his face. “Of course I’ve thought about it, it’s all I can think about really, but- not right now. Not here, maybe not ever. Probably sometime though, you know I’m not a good planner! What if I blurt it out during the ceremony when he’s all dressed up- oh god, Daichi in a suit is my absolute weakness.”

“Yuuji, I think you’re having a panic attack.” Futamata said worriedly.

“What? Why? Make it stop! I don’t like it!” Terushima yelled.

“No one likes panic attacks!”

“You’re a nurse, help me!”

“Sir, I am going to need you to calm down.” There is a long moment of silence before they both started laughing.

“Is that your Nurse Futamata voice? It’s kind of sexy.” Terushima rubbed at his face.

“Thank you, that’s so nice of you, I’m blushing.” There was a long moment of silence. “I know you think Sawamura is the greatest thing to walk the planet, and I’m not exactly disagreeing with you, but you’re pretty great too, you know? You deserve to be happy, and yeah, maybe confessing your undying love and obsessive need to make him the happiest man alive during his ex’s wedding where you’re pretending to be his boyfriend so he wouldn’t have to show up alone and ashamed isn’t the best idea, but-” Futamata made a complicated sound.

“I know.” Terushima let out a long, slow breath, trying to find some sort of inner peace of calm that never really existed inside of him. “Thanks Takeharu.” They said their goodbyes and Terushima scrolled to his email, opening up the one from Hinata and looking through the pictures the other man had already sent him. He stared at the picture of Sawamura and himself, leaning into each other, surrounded by a haze of pink and wondered if maybe he wasn’t the only one with more than friendship feelings or if that was just wishful thinking on his part.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm pretty sure Sugawara Koushi is a beautiful crier the big liar.


	5. Chapter Five

Terushima knows, objectively, there are people out there who can enjoy sexual relations, or no relations, without getting romantically attached. He is not arguing over the existence of such people, he’s just now realizing that he could never be one of those people. Because Terushima Yuuji binge watches Korean dramas, he pulls hats down low on his head and slides into the theater of the newest romantic comedy at least once a month. Because Terushima loves romance and he only pretends to be sickened when people are sappy around him.

At a pivotal moment in Terushima’s life he was told, by the one person he had naively trusted without question, that he was not the type of person you brought home to your family, Terushima Yuuji was the type of person you had fun with. Terushima had been angry at this assessment at first but then he had pulled it around him like an armor. He would be that person that you could have fun with one night and forget about in the morning because he would never let himself remember that person either.

Sawamura Daichi just had to come along with his great smile and caring personality and fantastic thighs and ruin everything. Ruin Terushima. Terushima no longer wanted to be just the person Sawamura had fun with, he wanted to be important to the other man. He wanted Sawamura to care about him the way he obviously cared about Sugawara or Hinata or Asahi, or anyone really at the wedding.

“Yuuji!” Hinata was running up to him, smile blinding as usual. Terushima smiled back, the little plastic bag from the store down the road digging into his fingers.

“Going for a run?” Terushima asked, though it was obvious that’s what the younger man was doing.

“Yeah, I always feel better after a run.” Hinata bounced on the balls of his feet and Terushima couldn’t help but think how cute the other man was. Of course he would say something like that, Terushima usually felt better after about three beers, but Hinata’s way of dealing with stress was as cute as him. Not to mention probably healthier on his liver. Terushima saw a figure rapidly approaching from the direction of the inn, behind Hinata.

“Still haven’t talked to Kageyama yet?” Terushima asked, trying to keep the smile out of his voice because it looked like Hinata was running out of time to put off that particular conversation.

“I still don’t know what to say to him!” Hinata groaned and scratched at the black beanie covering his mass of orange hair.

“I’m not good at planning out things to say either,” Terushima said, grinning slightly as the clear form of Kageyama was now barreling towards them. “I find I’m best when I’m shoved into things.”

“Hinata!” Kageyama shouted, chest heaving as he stopped just a yard or so away. Hinata’s light brown eyes went wide with shock and then betrayal before he turned around to face the darker haired man.

“Hey Kageyama!” Hinata was practically vibrating in front of Terushima. “Sorry, but I was just about to go for a jog-”

“I’ll go with you.” Terushima couldn’t see Hinata’s face but he was clearly looking over Kageyama’s black jeans, nice shoes, and sweater. Not really jogging appropriate clothing.

“Don’t be stupid, I’ll be-”

“I’m the one being stupid?” Kageyama’s features went dark but the feeling passed, his shoulders slumping. “Please can we just- please Hinata?” Kageyama’s voice was a low rasp. Terushima wondered briefly if he should walk away, give them privacy but they both seemed to have forgotten he was there and he was hooked.

“There’s nothing to talk about Kageyama, everything’s fine.” Hinata shrugged, his tightly wound fists beating a soft rhythm against his thighs.

“Stop lying to me dumbass! Everything is clearly not fine!” Kageyama bellowed and Terushima jumped at the loudness of it. “Just- do something! Say something, anything! Do you want to yell at me? Hit me? Go ahead!”

“I’m not going to hit you Kageyama.” Hinata ground out.

“Why not?” Kageyama shouted.

“Why are you getting mad at me for not wanting to hit you?” Hinata shouted back, taking two quick steps towards Kageyama before stopping suddenly.

“Do you want to be together again?” Kageyama asked, eyes downcast. Hinata let out a confused noise so Kageyama continued. “Is that what it will take, to get you back?”

“You have a boyfriend!” Hinata shoved Kageyama, looking murderous. “I have a boyfriend too! What the fuck is wrong with you?”

“We can work something out!” Kageyama yelled, clear panic on his features as Hinata stepped away from him. Kageyama reached out, grabbing onto Hinata’s shirt and Hinata instantly tried to pull back. There was a brief scuffle, Kageyama was bigger but Hinata was quick and slipped out of holds easily. Terushima worriedly glanced at the inn, wondering if he should step in or if he should get help?

“Stupidyama!” Hinata shouted as they both toppled over, Hinata on top of Kageyama who was holding on tight to him. “You’d ruin what you have with Yamaguchi for what?”

“For you!” Kageyama yelled from his sprawled out position on the ground before he covered his face with his arm, still using one hand to hold on tightly to Hinata. “I don’t- Yamaguchi is- I love him, alright dumbass? But you are- you never would understand! You’ve always had friends!”

“You have friends!” Hinata punched Kageyama’s shoulder despite his earlier protests about not wanting to hit Kageyama.

“None like you.” Kageyama admitted softly. “Do you know what I had to do when I got to high school? It was basically like turning myself inside out, but you’ve never cared! You don’t care that I’m an asshole or commanding, you think- me being the King- you- Hinata. I know everyone says that this is my fault, that I did everything wrong, but I just- I need you.”

“Idiotyama.” Hinata leaned forward, his face hidden in Kageyama’s chest, and his shoulders shook as he cried quietly. Terushima took this as his clue to leave and walked off as quietly, and quickly, as he could.

“You’re getting snot all over my favorite sweater.” Terushima could hear Kageyama grumble, but there was no bite in his words.

“I’m going to tell Yamaguchi you propositioned me.” Hinata’s voice cracked, his words coming out on soft hiccups but Terushima thought they’d be alright.

It’s not a relationship Terushima will ever be able to fully understand, and that’s fine. It’s not for him to understand, as long as all parties involved are happy then he’s happy. But that’s what it is like for all relationships, incomprehensible to those on the outside. Terushima doesn’t understand the full appeal of Sugawara and Oikawa together, or Kuroo and Kozume, but maybe that’s because he’s a little biased and he’s not sure how anyone could choose someone over Sawamura. Sawamura Daichi would always be his first choice, the problem was that the other man did not see him in the same light.

Terushima walked into the inn and his attention was immediately drawn over to the lobby area, where Oikawa and Iwaizumi were arguing in much the same way Hinata and Kageyama had been, except maybe with less cuddling and tears. Oikawa was waving a thick pile of papers in an obviously annoyed Iwaizumi’s face, getting close enough for the papers to graze the tan mans nose before they were ripped out of Oikawa’s hands.

“Ow Iwa!” Oikawa yelled, shielding his face as Iwaizumi beat him with the stack of papers. “Suga said you can’t hurt me before the wedding, we have pictures to take!” Oikawa tried to pull himself away but Iwaizumi was basically straddling him on one of the couches.

Another smaller couch was occupied by Kuroo and Kozume. Kuroo was watching the fight like he had put money on the winner, his arm wrapped around his smaller partner and his nose buried in the multi-hued hair. Kozume looked relatively bored as he stared down at his tablet, tapping on it every few moments.

“Sugawara said not to mess up your face.” Iwaizumi fired back.

“Mean Iwa!” Oikawa whined, going lax underneath Iwaizumi, who dropped the stack of papers on his friend's stomach before moving over to a chair with a proud scowl. Terushima didn’t even know it was possible to scowl in a proud way, but Iwaizumi proved him wrong. “New boyfriend!” Oikawa shot up, pout forgotten as he spotted Terushima.

“Hello,” Terushima greeted with a smile before offering up the bag of bread to everyone, stealing a meat bun for himself before settling down on the couch. Kozume gave him a shy, thankful smile as he took out a milk bread, putting his tablet down as he leaned further into Kuroo, who looked far too pleased by the movement. “What is the problem?” Terushima asked when he noticed Oikawa pouting down at the papers he held.

“Tell Terushima what the problem is, Shittykawa.” Iwaizumi smirked, taking a big bite of his bread as Oikawa picked at his own milk bread.

“Ushijimi Wakatoshi is coming to the wedding.” Oikawa said, as if this was the worst news possible. Terushima glanced around before finally looking at Oikawa in confusion. “You don’t know who that is? I thought you played volleyball!”

“I played it, but I didn’t live it.” Terushima said with a grin, though he knew that it was not a common thought process amongst Sawamura and his volleyball-crazed friends.

“Thank god there’s another sane person here.” Sugawara said cheerfully, sitting on the arm rest by Oikawa. Oikawa leaned his head against Sugawara, closing his eyes and looking peacefully happy before shooting up and waving the papers around dramatically.

“You handled the guest list!” Oikawa accused.

“Oh so you finally noticed, did you?” Sugawara looked gleeful, reaching out to take a piece of Oikawa’s milk bread but it was quickly pulled away from him. “Tooru, need I remind you that you’re the one who invited Ushijima?”

“Just to shove in his face that I’m getting married and he’s still miserable and alone!” Oikawa yelled but pulled apart his bread to give a large portion to Sugawara, who hummed happily as he began eating it. Terushima felt a tap on his arm and turned to look into bright nearly golden eyes before a tablet was placed in front of him.

“Ushijimi Wakatoshi,” Kozume explained, handing over his tablet where he had helpfully pulled an article about the unknown man up for Terushima. Terushima scrolled through it, thoroughly impressed.

“Wow he represented Japan for the 19 and under national division.” Terushima said, a soft whistle at the trivia.

“I was offered a spot but I had to have surgery for my knee.” Oikawa shot back petulantly.

“He was ranked top three spikers throughout high school and college.” Terushima said.

“Can’t spike if you don’t have a good setter!”

“Went to the best college for volleyball in Japan on a sports scholarship.”

“He wasn’t the only one!”

“Was a starter on the Olympic team twice now, and is-”

“Okay we get it, new boyfriend!” Oikawa shoved the tablet back at Kozume, giving him a betrayed look as Sugawara hid his laughter behind his hand. “Sawamura! You’ll back me up, Ushiwaka is coming to the wedding!” Sawamura slid down into the seat next to Terushima, smiling at him. Terushima cursed his betrayer heart for beating faster at just the sight of Sawamura.

“Daichi likes Ushijima.” Iwaizumi said with a smirk, fully enjoying Oikawa’s pain.

“What! Since when? How could you Sawamura?” Oikawa yelled, tossing himself back into Sugawara’s leg dramatically. Sugawara laughed softly before running his long fingers through Oikawa’s fringe. “Kou, milk-bread fingers.” Oikawa whined softly, but it didn’t stop him from leaning further into Sugawara.

“Ushijima told Daichi he should have gone to Shiratorizawa.” Iwaizumi said and Oikawa made a distressed noise but it was clear Sugawara’s fingers were magic because he made no further move to complain.

“That was high praise coming from him.” Sawamura said, leaning lightly against Terushima and eyeing his partially eaten pork bun.

“There’s no more left, and this one is mine, you can’t have any.” Terushima turned his head, taking a decisive big bite before he felt hot breath against his neck, a soft kiss right at the hinge of his jaw, a light nudge against his head. Terushima sighed loudly, dramatically, to try and cover up the way his breath hitched. “One bite.” Terushima was weak, and he was worried Sawamura was getting wise to it.

Sawamura let out a happy hum, taking a bite of the pork bun before lacing the fingers of their free hands together. Terushima looked up just in time to see Sugawara bury his face into Oikawa’s lovely head of hair, eyes suspiciously glossy again. Terushima glanced over and saw Kuroo smirking, like he had just won a bet but Terushima didn’t know the man well enough to know if that was just his default setting. At least Kozume was back to tapping away at his tablet.

“Kageyama, do you want some bread? There’s some red bean buns left and I think one melon-” Kageyama came to an abrupt stop right in front of Terushima, who was digging around in the plastic bag, trying to hide his blush-stained face. Terushima let out a startled noise, something akin to a squeak and squawk as Kageyama bent at a perfect 90 degree angle, shouted a thanks, took a red bean bun, and then practically ran away.

“I’ve never seen him take to someone so fast.” Iwaizumi deadpanned.

“New boyfriend what did you do? He’s my prodigy, how did you get him to bow to you? He’s never bowed to me!” Oikawa complained.

“Maybe if you did something respectable he might.” Iwaizumi muttered and then he and Oikawa were bickering again.

“Did you talk to Kageyama?” Sawamura asked, dragging Terushima’s attention back to him. Somehow he had gotten the meat bun away from Terushima’s slack fingers.

“I honestly haven’t said a word to him.” Terushima said in confusion before he was blindsided by a tackle that turned into a hug. “Shouyou!” Terushima laughed, realizing he was being hugged tightly by the smaller man.

“Thank you Yuuji!” Hinata gave Terushima eskimo kisses before flipping the rest of the way onto the couch, lithely landing on his feet and taking off down the same hall that Kageyama had disappeared down.

“It was like being hugged by an angel.” Terushima whispered, burying close into a laughing Sawamura’s side. “I want to take him home with us, please?”

“No.” Terushima was surprised by the conviction in Kozume’s voice. By the rapidly spreading red over his face, Kozume must have been surprised too.

“Kenma and Shouyou are neighbors, he looks after Kenma’s cats when he’s away for work.” Kuroo explained with a smile, running long fingers down Kozume’s arm. Kozume nodded and turned his tablet towards Terushima again, unabashedly showing the other man a picture of Hinata sprawled out on a pastel yellow couch, covered in four- no five cats.

“Is that your background? That is so cute!” Terushima gushed as Kozume nodded, and everyone around them laughed.

“Not to mention his boyfriend would probably miss him if you were to kidnap him.” Sawamura said with a grin, finishing off the meat bun with satisfaction. Terushima couldn’t even work up a good pout, not with Sawamura grinning at him so sweetly. Unfair really.

“Wait, Kenma! You live next door to Shrimpy! You have probably met his boyfriend, is he real? Did Shrimpy hire an escort? Is he 18, that was my guess, or he’s probably super old and a giant pervert because Shrimpy looks like he’s still in high school!” Oikawa was leaning towards Kozume, who was looking increasingly harrassed.

“How about we all go visit the hot springs?” Sugawara pulled his fiance back. “Everyone meet there in, say 15 minutes? That should give us enough time to gather up the stragglers.” Then everyone was dispersing and Terushima was following Sawamura back to their room.

“Sawamura, can I ask you something?” Terushima asked as soon as he closed the door behind him. Sawamura turned around, fingers scratching at his stomach as he gave Terushima an encouraging nod. “It’s about Oikawa.”

“Sure.” Sawamura looked curious now.

“You don’t have to tell me, or maybe you don’t know or I’m just being-” Terushima motioned vaguely because he couldn’t really think of the correct word to use. “But something is- Oikawa seems a little off sometimes?” Terushima wasn’t sure what he was even asking really, just that he had a vague notion, something tickling the back of his mind that wouldn’t let go.

“Oh yeah, that.” Sawamura sat down on the edge of the futon, long legs spread out in front of him as he looked up at Terushima, considering. “Oikawa’s parents are certified geniuses, both of them have more degrees and acolytes than I can even count. I don’t think they’ve ever verbally put pressure on Oikawa, he’s their only son and from the few pieces of information I’ve gathered, he’s kind of a miracle baby, they were told many times they wouldn’t be able to have one.”

“Still a lot of pressure for a kid, maybe even more when being thought of as a miracle baby of two certified geniuses.” Terushima said, walking over to sit next to Sawamura before deciding to lay down next to him instead. Sawamura laid back, their shoulders brushing, their fingers tangling together as if it was instinctual.

“Right, and Oikawa’s intelligent, yeah? But he has to work really hard at it, it’s not natural or innate.” Terushima could understand that, he wasn’t what people would call naturally smart either, though he thought of himself as clever. “And then there was volleyball, and Oikawa put all this work and time and effort into it. Forcing himself to be the best, to study the best and be the perfect setter, to make sure to bring out the best in his team. But that also took time and effort, but he started getting all this attention from it.”

“Helps that he looks like he just stepped off a runway.” Terushima lightly, gently ran his fingers along the blunt length of Sawamura’s fingers, up his warm calloused palm.

“Exactly, so he gets attention because he’s this great setter at this young age and then even more attention because he’s so good looking, and most guys can’t pull off good looking while playing volleyball, yeah?” Sawamura grins at him and Terushima can’t help but think that Sawamura, sweaty and intensely focused volleyball playing Sawamura, probably looked extremely nice while playing. “But there are actual volleyball geniuses out there, and before the first medal is even put on Oikawa’s shelf he’s confronted with one.”

“Kageyama?” Terushima guesses because the way Oikawa had said ‘prodigy’ was a bit bitter, a little too harsh.

“Kageyama came in as a first year the year Oikawa finally started to gain some traction as a setter.” Sawamura looked up at the ceiling, squinting and frowning. “It’s hard for me to be unbiased about it, because Kageyama- he was my underclassman. He’s harsh and loud and he expects everyone around him to give 120% and that rubs a lot of people the wrong way but he just wants to win, and what’s so wrong with that? And it’s not that he doesn’t practice, god that kid raised the bar for all of us, but volleyball is like breathing to him. What takes some setters years to learn, Kageyama can master in a couple weeks.”

“Oikawa might be a genius setter but Kageyama is a monster, and how do you face off with monsters?” Terushima had faced off with a couple monsters in his time playing volleyball, most of them during his two years in Barcelona. Players that seemed far out of his league, but it made the game fun for him. Playing the game, being able to hold out as long as he possibly could during sets, that was what was important to him. He didn’t care much about numbers, sure winning was great, but the game was fun. Playing against monsters was fun to him because they pushed him, but he could see why it could also cause some people to crack under pressure.

“Apparently it got real bad for a bit, Oikawa ended up injuring his knee, Hajime is the one who found him collapsed in the gym, hours after practice had ended.” Sawamura entwined his fingers with Terushima’s again, holding them tightly within his grasp before loosening the hold. Terushima’s heart beat quickly as he stared up at the ceiling. “He healed, and he was able to play his last year, he even won his first tournament against our team, against Kageyama but-” Sawamura shrugged.

“Kageyama won the second one, ending Oikawa’s high school career.” Terushima finished, his voice soft in the otherwise quiet room.

“Oikawa got scouted to a bunch of different colleges, even some overseas. Most of the time he seems to be doing well, but sometimes he slips back, stops taking care of himself. Stops eating right or sleeping, practices until his knee gives out.” Sawamura sighs, closes his eyes. “Suga makes him better because he doesn’t let Oikawa do whatever the hell he wants like most people do.”

“Like Iwaizumi does?” Terushima asked carefully and Sawamura nods in answer. It makes sense. Iwaizumi cleans up after Oikawa makes a mess, but he doesn’t stop his best friend from making the mess in the first place. Terushima had thought that the reason the two old friends weren’t together was because Oikawa didn’t share Iwaizumi’s feelings, but maybe it was because Iwaizumi acknowledged that he wasn’t the right fit for him. Just because you loved someone didn’t mean you belonged together.

“Right, Hajime yells and swears a lot but he’s a big softie.” Sawamura opened his eyes and turned his head, warm milk-chocolate eyes following the lines of Terushima’s profile. Terushima continued staring up at the ceiling, afraid if he looked at Sawamura during this strangely intimate moment he would confess everything and risk losing Sawamura. “Suga might look like a big softie but he has a backbone of steel.”

“Aren’t you worried that it’s all about Sugawara taking care of Oikawa then?” Terushima asked.

“No, I was at first, and maybe I held onto that for a long time. Too long probably because I wanted to think Suga made the wrong choice.” Sawamura’s grasp tightened for a brief moment, old pain flashing across his features before it disappeared. “But Suga has this bad habit of putting everyone before himself, and like Hajime does with Oikawa, I just let him. I thought I was helping him but Oikawa lets Suga be selfish, he encourages him to be. To take the time to care about what he wants, to put his needs before others.”

“You sound like you’ve been enlightened Daichi, the talk with Kuroo must have gone really well.” Terushima finally looked over at Sawamura, trying to smile like nothing was bothering him, like the man lying next to him didn’t have the power to absolutely crush his new fragile heart.

“Part of it did, though admittedly I was a bit distracted.” Sawamura smiled, a slow and easy crawl across his lips that lit up his eyes and made Terushima’s heart beat double time.

“Distracted?” Terushima asked, feeling a bit distracted himself.

“Don’t upset him.” Sawamura repeated, smile turning into a grin as he leaned forward, his forehead touching Terushima’s shoulder as he laughed.

“Are you laughing because I’m not very threatening?” Terushima asked, only half insulted. “I’ll have you know I am a hooligan Daichi, Daichi stop laughing- I got into a lot of fights back in my day, people feared me.” Sawamura’s laughter rang throughout their room, making it near impossible for Terushima to be angry with him. “I am one scary motherfucker.”

“S-stop.” Sawamura pleaded, looking up at him with tears in his eyes, a happy look lighting up his features. “You were very intimidating, I don’t think I’ve ever seen you look so serious in my life, and that’s- god, I couldn’t get it out of my head, I barely heard every third word Kuroo said.”

“I distracted you? I wasn’t even there!” Terushima said, offended and moving to sit up but Sawamura rolled ontop of him, straddling his waist and bracing his forearms on either side of Terushima’s face, effectively stopping him from going anywhere.

“You were on my side, you defended me.” Sawamura said, all traces of laughter gone though his face still had that happy look plastered on it, now with some wonderment thrown in.

“Of course I’m on your side.” Terushima said, ignoring how breathless his voice sounded. His fingers were curled into the loose fabric of Sawamura’s henley, he wasn’t even sure when he had grabbed onto it.

“I’ve never had that.” Sawamura’s warmth pressed down on Terushima, it was comforting and unsettling at the same time. “I didn’t- none of us wanted to have our friends split or trying to pick one side over the other, as if we were in a bad divorce. They protect both of us, but you- you defended me.”

“And I say once again, _of course_ , I’m on your side Daichi, whether you want me to choose or not, I will always be on your side. I will always defend you.” Terushima said with conviction, not sure why this was so important to Sawamura but knowing he had to get it through the other man's thick skull.

“You don’t have to be though.” Sawamura’s face lowered, his breath warm against Terushima’s lips. He smelled lightly of citrus and mint and sweat. God he smelled good. “You defended me.” Sawamura repeated in awe and Terushima was about to say something, anything, about how of course he would defend Sawamura, he loved Sawamura with every molecule of his being, but then Sawamura was kissing Terushima and all thoughts flew out the window.

This kiss, _this kiss_ was so earth shattering different than any other kiss they had shared before that Terushima nearly forgot how to reciprocate. Him, Terushima Yuuji, King of All Things Sexual, nearly forgot how to kiss back because of Sawamura Daichi, King of Giving Terushima a Fat Lip with their first kiss because he was Not Very Good at kissing in the beginning. It felt different to its very core, and Terushima kissed back with every ounce of his hidden feelings.

This kiss was not just the beginning of something that would eventually lead to sex, like all their other kisses had been. It did not scream as part of being the ‘benefits’ part of the ‘friends with benefits’ that all their past kisses had been. It was slow and careful and so-very-lovely. Sawamura seemed to be kissing Terushima just to kiss him. There was no after, just this, just that kiss right at that moment.

Loud knocking on their door broke them apart, gasping.

“Hot spring time!” A musical voice floated through the wood, mocking as if it knew what was happening in the suddenly overheating room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Being sick apparently makes me very sappy!
> 
> Thank you guys so much for all the kind, wonderful words! It is really, truly and absolutely appreciated!
> 
> Now who's ready to meet Hinata's MYSTERY boyfriend!??


	6. Chapter Six

Terushima Yuuji tried to find the exact moment, the time or place or event that moved Sawamura Daichi solidly out of the “friends with benefits” category into the “person I’d do anything to make happy” slot. He couldn’t figure it out, but he knew one thing. He had probably been in love with Sawamura Daichi long before they started sleeping together, when he had just thought of them as acquaintances with friends in common. How could he ever think he was just a random acquaintance of Sawamura’s?

Sawamura had joined his hospital friends down at the bar Terushima worked at, he had leaned against the bar, waiting for drinks and smiling, flirting with Terushima. They exchanged their most bizarre stories they had encountered during their various jobs. They had recounted funny volleyball moments, triumphs and losses. Terushima knew all about Sawamuras family and friends, and Sawamura knew the same about him.

They had agreed that it would be fine if they saw other people, but had Terushima slept with anyone in the past six months? No, he hadn’t even kissed anyone, hardly flirted except to get better tips at work. It hadn’t even just been the past six months either, it had started well before that.

“What about you Terushima?” Sugawara was asking him a question, and he had to wrack his brain for what they had been talking about.

“You don’t have to answer that.” Sawamura told him warmly, but with a direct look to his friend to shut his mouth. Past relationships, that’s what they had been talking about in a hot spring with plenty of people's own past relationships soaking with them.

“It’s fine, it’s kind of a short list.” Terushima waved Sawamura off, even as if he felt a warmth that had nothing to do with the hot spring. Sawamura had been defending him. “I’ve only had one serious relationship- before Daichi that is.” Terushima added the last bit on quickly, running a wet hand through his hair as he played with his tongue ring in a nervous manner.

“Really? Just the one?” Kuroo asked, cat-like eyes curious even as he lounged lazily against the rocks behind him. Kozume sighed beside him and gave Terushima a sympathy-filled look before his eyes slid away.

“Yeah, I was still in high school, it was with one of my upperclassmen.” Terushima shrugged, even though it was still a sore subject with him, made even sorer now that he realized he had let that stupid boy shape the past near-decade of his life.

“Is that the one who cheated on you?” Hinata asked, looking like he couldn’t decide if he wanted to be angry or sad on Terushima’s behalf.

“Yeah, near two years, which was the whole of our relationship.” Terushima was surprised when Sawamura laced their fingers together, resting them below the surface of the water. Maybe that surprise was why he continued further than he usually delved into his past. “He told me I should get use to it because I was the type of guy you had fun with, not the type you bring home to meet your family.” Terushima was staring down at the water, towards Sawamura and his clasped hands. When the silence continued around him he finally looked up to see faces of mixed outrage and sympathy and horror, plus a myriad of different emotions.

There was suddenly questions and shouts layered one over another. Terushima was momentarily surprised before Sugawara was leaning forward, an impish grin planted on his features.

“You never told Sawamura about that, did you?” Terushima raised his eyebrows before turning to look at Sawamura, wondering why it would matter if he told the other man but was stopped short. Sawamura looked more angry, more outraged than Terushima had ever seen him. He was clenching his jaw so tightly he could see angry white striations break out on his skin, his eyes were narrowed, but the grip on his hand was so careful, so gentle.

“Ohoho,” Kuroo’s happy cackle rang out. “Didn’t anyone tell you that your boyfriend has a bit of a temper?”

“Shut up Tetsurou.” Despite the venom in Sawamura’s tone, Kuroo looked pleased that Sawamura had called him by his given name.

“Daichi is the most even tempered person I know.” Terushima said as laughter rang out around him. Sawamura lost some of his violent edge and looked away sheepishly. “Daichi?”

“It was a long time ago!” Sawamura lashed out, kicking Oikawa, who yelped and hid behind Sugawara.

“Daichi, I just bailed you out of-” Azumane earned a kick too.

“You always made fun of me for getting into fights when I was a kid!” Terushima accused, still holding tight to Sawamura’s hand as he pointed at him with their enclosed hands.

“That’s because you picked fights over the smallest things!” Sawamura shot back, mirth dancing in his eyes.

“Rude! I want to break up!” Everyone was laughing around them, the earlier tension dissolved. Sawamura pulled Terushima closer, his eyes dark in the dim lighting of the bath.

“Never.” Terushima’s treacherous heart pounded faster, as if it didn’t realize they were just playing parts, as if it believed everything Sawamura was saying.

“It’s kind of a good thing it happened, isn’t it?” Hinata asked once everyone had settled back down.

“What a horrible thing to say, dumbass!” Kageyama berated, earning him a soft hair tug from Yamaguchi next to him.

“No! I didn’t mean it- that wasn’t- what I meant-” Hinata took a deep breath, glaring at Kageyama for added effect before starting again. “I meant that somethings, somethings that seem shitty at the time, they happen and it- it shapes you as a person, makes you tougher or softer, makes you for better or worse, and if that hadn’t happened then maybe Yuuji wouldn’t be here right now? If those bad things hadn’t happened in any of our lives, if something had turned out differently, gone a better way- then maybe we wouldn’t be here.” Hinata shrugged, looking suddenly uncomfortable.

“That was nice, Shouyou.” Kozume spoke up, smiling softly at the other man, who beamed appreciatively back at him.

“We need drinks.” Oikawa suddenly said before standing up, completely naked and scrambled out to go get said drinks.

“Were those hickeys on his-” Sugawara coughed loudly and everyone started to laugh.

\-----

Terushima felt just on the right side of tipsy, warm and comfortable in his own skin as he made his way down the quiet halls. They had all dispersed to their own rooms to get changed for dinner, and maybe they shouldn’t have shared sake before dinner, so early in the day, but everyone was more or less in good moods. Everyone wanted that good mood to carry over into dinner.

Also Terushima didn’t want to have his stupid brain overthinking every simple thing Sawamura said or did. All his own feelings had to be put on the backburner because this week was not about him, it was about Sawamura and how finally he was getting some semblance of resolve back into his life.

“Yuu,” Terushima perked up, it wasn’t a nickname he was use to being called but it was one he had heard a couple times. He peeked around a corner, curious as to who would feel comfortable calling him that in that low baritone before he realized that the person wasn’t call him, Terushima Yuuji, but him, Nishinoya Yuu.

“Please Asahi.” Nishinoya’s fingers were curled into the fabric of Azumane’s shirt. Azumane was bigger, probably weighed almost twice as Nishinoya and could pull away easily, but he stepped closer to Nishinoya at the smaller man’s command. “I don’t- we don’t have to do anything, but just until we have to go home, please just stay in my room.” Terushima had never heard Nishinoya’s voice like that, pleading and determined, soft and strong at the same time.

“Yuu, we shouldn’t- this isn’t- I don’t want to hurt you.” Azumane’s deep baritone was even lower, his face turned down towards Nishinoya, his body nearly bending over the smaller man.

“She’s graduating soon, right? You’ll be- the date is probably set for the wedding already, isn’t it?” Nishinoya asked, forehead resting against Azumane’s chest, face downturned as his knuckles turned white from gripping the shirt so tightly. “This will be our last chance, please Asahi? Please?” Nishinoya slid his arms around Azumane’s rather impressive waist. “We don’t have to do anything, we’ll just sleep, please let me just have that at least.”

“This isn’t fair to-”

“Do you hate me now? Is that it? Is that why you can’t even look at me anymore?” Nishinoya choked out, pushing himself backwards so he could look up at Azumane, he had to crane his neck the height difference was so vast. Azumane’s hands flailed.

“Hate you?” Azumane pressed Nishinoya against the wall, Terushima let out a small gasp but neither of them were paying any attention to anything that wasn’t the other person. Azumane leaned down, his face mere centimeters from the stubborn face of Nishinoya. “Hate- how could I ever hate you? You should be the one who hates me. You should think I’m dirt- I don’t- I have never deserved you.”

“Then stay with me, just for the next couple nights. Then after the wedding-” Nishinoya trailed of, his fingers tracing across Azumane’s cheek, down to his jaw, over his lips.

“After?” Azumane asked, pressing closer.

Terushima backed out, feeling his throat tighten and his eyes burn. He forgot- he forgot how weepy he can get when he’s a little drunk. More drunk Terushima is all fun times and loud laughter, but tipsy Terushima is one small kitten video from spending the rest of his night sobbing into his pillow.

Terushima made it further down the hall before he leaned against the wall and slid down.

“Yuuji?” Hinata asked and Terushima turned to see the ginger man with Tanaka and- was that Sawamura?

 

“Daichi?” Terushima asked in confusion because the guys porportions were all wrong though the features were vaguely familiar.

“This is Ennoshita, he just arrived!” Hinata announced happily but it was just the wrong thing to say at that moment. Terushima placed his face into his hands and started to cry. “Y-Yuuji? Oh god, oh no, it’s okay! It’s okay, I’ll go get Daichi! I’ll go get him right now!” And Hinata was off, his little ball of sunshine had left him with baldy and-

“An imposter.” Terushima whimpered, thinking back to sad Azumane and heartbroken Nishinoya which only made him cry harder. “A love affair!” He pointed at Tanaka and Ennoshita, the not-Sawamura look alike. Tanaka paled, jumping like Terushima had thrown something vile at him. Ennoshita looked vaguely amused but in a sleepy way, as if he could pass out at any moment.

“Yuuji?” A soft voice came from behind the imposter.

“Is he drunk?” Tanaka asked, his voice oddly high pitched.

“Just a little.” Sawamura was suddenly there, making everything equally better and worse. Terushima gripped his shoulders.

“If they love each other then why don’t they just be together, why do they hide away in dark hallways?” Terushima motioned, he meant to motion behind him but his hand didn’t seem to want to let go of Sawamura’s, admittedly nice, shoulders so the motion failed somewhere around Tanaka and Ennoshita.

“Tanaka and Ennoshita are in love?” Hinata asked, looking extremely pleased as he looked over at the two stunned men behind them.

“H-how does he know that?” Tanaka stuttered, his face bright red. Ennoshita tilted his head at Tanaka, sleepy eyes narrowing slightly before looking back at Terushima.

“He wasn’t talking about us, were you?” Ennoshita asked.

“No, but now I see your faces and you clearly love each other, you should just be together!” Terushima leaned into Sawamura, who was laughing of all things.

“Oh I forgot all about weepy Yuuji, usually Bobata makes sure you have enough drinks that this doesn’t happen.” Sawamura said in great amusement, rubbing Terushima’s back in soothing circles.

“I just want everyone to be happy.” Terushima mumbled somewhere into Sawamura’s shoulder. “I want you to be happy most of all, are you happy Dadchi?” Terushima asked, shifting slightly so he could hold Sawamura’s face between his hands.

“Did you just call me Dadchi?” Sawamura asked, eyebrow raised and Terushima shushed that pointed eyebrow, caressing it back into place as Sawamura’s scowl turned into a grin. “I am very happy Yuuji, why don’t you join me in my happiness? Let’s stop crying, okay?”

“I don’t know I might need a kiss.” Terushima was fighting a losing battle with a smile, but he was trying to hide it.

“A kiss?” Sawamura seemed to think on it. “I guess I could do that. Who should kiss you though? Hinata?” Hinata’s face was suddenly flooding Terushima’s vision, soft, slightly wet kisses raining down all over Terushima’s laughing face.

“What’s going on?” Nishinoya asked, coming around the corner with Azumane following behind him. Terushima looked at both of them before crawling into Sawamura’s arms to start crying again.

\------

“No,” Terushima whined as someone, chances were likely it was Sawamura, was trying to pry the blankets away from him. He had cocooned himself in them once he had sobered up enough to realize what he had done. Spying on people was kind of a classic Terushima thing to do, he was too curious for his own good and the tension between Nishinoya and Azumane was too heartbreaking to walk away from, especially in his slightly inebriated state. “No Daichi, no.” Terushima whined more, trying to tuck the blankets more firmly around him.

“If you’re not going to come out, at least let me come in.” Sawamura said in a voice that practically told Terushima he was getting a lot of amusement out of this situation. Terushima thought about denying him, for nearly a complete second before he held up the edge of his cocoon and Sawamura slide his way inside.

“Did I out Tanaka and- what was his name? Not-Daichi?” Terushima tried to keep the trembling out of his tone as Sawamura practically molded his front to Terushima’s back. One strong arm wrapped around Terushima’s waist, pulling him even closer as the other one pillowed Sawamura’s head, blunt calloused fingers dangling in front of Terushima’s face.

“Ennoshita Chikara.” Sawamura said, his chest rising, pressing against Terushima’s back as he let out a long breath, his body relaxing completely around Terushima’s. Terushima was sure Sawamura could feel how fast his heart was beating, but at least he couldn’t see his face, how red it was, how he was nervously rolling his tongue ring between his teeth.

“I accidently accused them of being in-love and then I nearly blurted out that Nishinoya and Azumane were having secret hallway love affairs!” Terushima groaned, turning his head and burying his face into the pillow that smelled like Sawamura.

“Yeah, I did not know about Ryuu and Ennoshita, that was kind of amazing.” Terushima could feel Sawamura’s smile on the back of his neck, his heart valiantly trying to beat it’s way right out of his chest. Terushima didn’t understand because he has had sex with Sawamura multiple times, in various positions and in many different places so why was his heart beating so hard from just a little light spooning?

Then again when was the last time someone had willingly cuddled with Terushima? Terushima loved being touched, loved cuddling but he had always forced himself to leave after the dirty deed was done. Forced himself to leave before he was kicked out. But this was Sawamura Daichi and the more Terushima thought about it, the less likely it would have been that he would have kicked Terushima out at all, or even lightly alluded to Terushima being unwelcomed. How much post-sex cuddle time had Terushima missed out on by making his quick escapes?

Terushima decided to let all his worries go and finally relaxed his body, his fingers trailing down the forearm branded around his waist. Sawamura smiled wider, his lips pressed against his neck before he lightly pressed kisses down the long length of Terushima’s neck.

“I think Ennoshita would buy you a drink to be honest.” Sawamura said softly, his nose trailing back up, following the line of kisses he had left. Terushima felt warm all over, and not just because they were covered by a thick blanket.

“He didn’t know?” Terushima asked, his body and mind feeling more relaxed than he could ever remember being.

“Ryuu’s only ever dated women,” Sawamura answered, sighing softly against the back of Terushima’s neck. “Ennoshita didn’t really develope feelings for him until they moved in together a little less than a year ago. Ryuu lost his job and couldn’t afford his house anymore, he was almost forced to move back with his parents until Ennoshita offered him a room at his house. It was suppose to be temporary, Ryuu got a new job almost immediately, he works construction and from what I hear he makes a good amount of money. We thought they had just gotten comfortable with each other, apparently they had just not in the way we had thought.”

“Ennoshita is fairly good looking.” Terushima admitted, feeling Sawamura grin against him.

“Are you saying that because you think he looks like me?” Sawamura nearly purred, making Terushima’s heartbeat pick up double time.

“What about Azumane and Nishinoya?” Terushima asked, ignoring Sawamura’s previous question, to which the other man laughed, his body shaking against Terushima’s.

“I am so glad you’re here.” Sawamura’s lips brushed against the shell of Terushima’s ear and his whole body became stiff.

“Sawamura?” Terushima asked, formality slipping back into place because he had to guard his heart somehow. After this was over, after they were done pretending Terushima was going to be left gutted, but he could pick himself up, he always did. But if Sawamura continued to do these things, say those type of things to him he was going to destroy Terushima when this ended.

“I thought it would be good for me to have you here, you always say Hinata is like a little ray of sunshine but you’re- you’re like the suns warmth against my skin. You make everything better, and not just for me either. You helped Kageyama and Hinata, I’m not even sure what happened between you and Sugawara but he was giving you some really fond looks earlier, you nearly made him cry too- and then there was Ryuu and Ennoshita, now you want to somehow help Asahi and Noya too?” Sawamura rolled Terushima over and hovered above him, fingers lightly caressing his temple before burying themselves in his hair.

“I didn’t do anything, really.” Terushima hardly recognized his own voice, soft and raspy.

“You did everything.” Sawamura said softly, too softly. Terushima wanted to push him away, pull him closer- his mind was somehow equal parts too loud and too quiet. “You don’t even see it, do you? How you radiate warmth, how you make people want to be around you all the time?” Terushima reached up, cupping the back of Sawamura’s head and kissing him before the other man could say anything more. Didn’t Sawamura realize that Terushima was completely in-love with him? Intoxicated by every little movement, every word that came out of Sawamura’s mouth?

Terushima tried to kiss Sawamura hard and fast, something that was just a lead-up to eventual sex like he was use to. He needed to get back on solid ground, needed to be where he was comfortable instead of this floaty light feeling stuck behind his ribs that threatened to destroy him when all of this was over. But Sawamura tilted his head, turned the kiss into something soft and heart wrenchingly wonderful with a slow, slow drag of his mouth against Terushima’s.

There was loud pounding on the door.

“Suga sent me to come get you two before you miss dinner!” Oikawa’s sing-song voice rang throughout the room, as if he knew exactly what was happening inside with its two occupants.

“I’m beginning to think our room is bugged by how often we get interrupted.” Sawamura was smiling, like he hadn’t just completely wrecked Terushima inside and out. “Ready to face the music? I’ll make sure you don’t get all weepy again.” Sawamura laid a soft, closed-mouth kiss on Terushima’s bottom lip before kissing his top one in the same manner.

“If you don’t come out by the count of five I’ll be forced to call reinforcements!” Oikawa said in that same sing-song voice.

“Daichi?” Terushima asked, his voice barely above a whisper. Sawamura hummed, kissing the tip of his nose.

“Five!” Sawamura pushed himself up, but didn’t move off of Terushima, just stared at him.

“Four~” His head tilted to the side, eyes narrowing just slightly.

“Three,” He shifted all his weight to one arm, his free hand now lightly playing with the tips of Terushima’s hair, his face stilled in complete concentration.

“Two…” Terushima swallowed around the sudden lump in his throat.

“One!” Sawamura’s eyes widened a fraction, his lips parting and revealing a smile. “You’ve left me no choice, I’m getting Suga!”

“Daichi?” Terushima questioned again, heart in his throat but then Sawamura was lifting himself up, pulling Terushima along with him, still with that curious smile planted on his face.

“We should go, I would not be surprised if they clear out the kitchen of food.” Sawamura was pulling Terushima along by his hand, out the door and into the hallway. Terushima’s heart was still beating wildly, he felt as if he had missed something critical, an answer Sawamura had found in the depths of Terushima’s eyes.

\------

After dinner, most of them had gone outside to lay underneath the cherry blossoms and wait for the meteor shower to start. It’d still be several hours until it got dark, then another hour until the actual meteor shower would start but they were all relaxed from the hot springs, good food, and even better company so they dragged out blankets and lazed out on them.

Sawamura’s head had found a nice pillow on Terushima’s thigh, and since Terushima took this as a blatant invitation to touch his fake-boyfriend all he wanted, he was not going to turn that down. So he lightly carded his fingers through Sawamura’s short and fluffy hair, enjoying the way Sawamura’s eyes closed in pleasure, a soft happy hum emanating from deep in his throat.

Azumane and Nishinoya were to their right, sitting close but not touching. Nishinoya was talking about volleyball, of course, he had been nationally regarded as one of the best liberos and he had travelled throughout the world. Azumane was watching Nishinoya wildly gesticulate with a fondness that Terushima found heartbreaking and so obvious that Azumane loved the smaller man with every ounce of his being.

On the other side of the tragic duo was the happy-to-be-married couple, both laying down with Oikawa using Sugawara’s stomach as a pillow. Both of them seemed content just to listen to the conversation around them, their fingers entwined together.

Tanaka and Ennoshita was in front of Nishinoya and Azumane, watching Nishinoya recount his new story of getting lost in Venice and playing street football with some kids, who confused Nishinoya for another kid. Ennoshita was leaning slightly into Tanaka’s shoulder, the bald man’s face a happy shade of red, his left knee jiggling nervously and his eyes softening every time he looked over at Ennoshita, who seemed pleased by the other man's reactions to him.

Iwaizumi was stretched out, arms pillowing his head and his legs resting in Sawamura’s lap. If it wasn’t for the tiny pleased smile on his face, he could be sleeping. Next to him was Kageyama and Yamaguchi, leaning back-to-back. Kageyama was listening with rapt attention to what Nishinoya was saying, while Yamaguchi gathered the fallen pink petals into an open palm, releasing them every once and awhile into Kageyama’s black hair. Kageyama either didn’t care or didn’t notice his black hair full of pink petals.

“Hey isn’t that the guy- the one from the Iron Wall?” Yamaguchi asked, cutting off all conversation as everyone twisted in various ways to see the rather large figure walking towards the inn.

“Aone Takanobu?” Terushima asked, eyes shining in remembrance at facing the Iron Wall in high school. Games against them were always fun, they never seemed to quite know what to do with Terushima’s old team.

“Oh sure, him you know.” Oikawa scoffed but there was no venom in his words.

“Was he invited to the wedding?” Terushima asked, looking around to various people shaking their heads.

“W-why would h-he be h-h-here?” Azumane stuttered horribly, seeming to fold into himself.

“It’s okay Asahi, if he tries to challenge you again I’ll defend you!” Nishinoya said confidently, his hand rubbing soothing circles against Azumane’s large back. Azumane leaned, ever so slightly, into Nishinoya.

“Whenever we played against Date Tech, Aone would single Asahi out, finding him before the game and pointing at him.” Sawamura explained, eyes narrowing slightly on the large figure as if calculating his percentage of actually being able to defeat the giant.

“Do you think he’s here for Asahi?” Terushima asked in a hushed whisper, fingers gripping Sawamura’s henley as he looked up excitedly at the large figure. “Maybe he’s in love with him and has come to confess himself! Can he talk? I’ve never heard him talk!”

“He’s in love with you?” Nishinoya asked, the motion of his hand on Azumane’s back coming to a stop. “Did you- were you two-?” Nishinoya trailed off, like he couldn’t even completely comprehend what he was saying.

“W-w-what?” Azumane stuttered out before grabbing Nishinoya and looking oddly intense for such a nervous guy. “He and I were never like that. Never.” Nishinoya stared at Azumane.

“Is that the type of guy you like?” Nishinoya asked, his voice hollow but there was something else there, a twitch of his lips that made Terushima narrow his eyes.

“No!” Azumane shook his head, loose pieces of long hair falling out of his bun.

“Because I can do a lot of things Asahi but I can’t make myself two meters tall!” Nishinoya couldn’t hide his grin anymore, but Azumane obviously didn’t get the memo he was being relentlessly teased.

“I don’t want you to be two meters tall, you’re perfect- god Yuu, I love you as you are.” The air stilled around them, Azumane freezing as he realized what he had admitted, out loud, in front of his closest friends. “U-uh, I- um- oh.” Azumane bowed his head, trying to fold in on himself but the poor man was far too large for that. Nishinoya looked like someone had pushed pause on him.

“Hinata!” Kageyama spat and everyone’s attention was once again pulled back to the tall figure of Aone Takanobu, now joined by a beaming Hinata. Neither person seemed to notice that they had gained an audience.

“Asahi’s secret lover is actually Shouyou’s mysterious boyfriend?” Terushima asked into the silence, Sawamura chuckling and pulling him against him, as if that would stop him from trying to stir up more trouble.

Aone bent down, they were too far away and it was too dimly light to make out expressions anymore, but Hinata was reaching up, standing on his tippy toes- “Oh my, he’s on his tippy toes!” and they kissed, chastely, briefly, but Hinata’s arms still remained around Aone’s neck. They were too far away to make out words, but they could hear the happy chirps in Hinata’s usually exuberant cadance.

“What’s going on?” Kuroo’s slow drawl came from behind them as he and Kozume planted themselves on the spread out blankets.

“Hinata’s boyfriend,” Oikawa pointed. “Tippy toe kisses.” He sounded like he was going to have a mental breakdown.

“Takenobu is here early?” Kozume asked as he settled himself between Kuroo’s legs, leaning back against his boyfriend.

“You did know who it was!” Oikawa shouted triumphantly.

“Of course, they are neighbors after all.” Sugawara pulled lightly on Oikawa’s wavy hair, grinning impishly. “He wasn’t purposely keeping it a secret, he was just worried about what everyone would say, how they’d react. He didn’t want to panic negative goatee.” Sugawara motioned to the still curled up Azumane. Nishinoya was continuing to rub Azumane’s back, smiling like someone had given him the best present in the world, even though Azumane was groaning pitifully against Nishinoya.

Terushima peeked around Sawamura, watching as Hinata grabbed Aone’s bag before slipping his smaller hand into Aone’s admittedly bigger one before pulling him in the direction of the inn. Their voices gradually got quieter as they disappeared into the inn.

“You don’t have to worry Nishinoya, it looks like Aone is into smaller men!” Terushima pretended to struggle to get out of Sawamura’s hold, grinning in satisfaction when Sawamura just adjusted his arms slightly and kept Terushima from wiggling away. “Though maybe Asahi should worry since Nishinoya is even smaller-”

“Shh!” Sawamura cut him off.

“What did you say?” Nishinoya turned an intense look onto Terushima. Terushima had forgotten not to mention Nishinoya’s small stature around the man.

“Aone likes smaller men?” Azumane said, his head popping up as he glared in the general direction of where Aone and Hinata had disappeared.

“Who are you calling small?” Nishinoya yelled, tackling Azumane and pushing him to the ground.

“Ack! Noya I’m sorry!” Azumane pleaded as everyone laughed around them. Terushima settled against Sawamura, who hummed happily and rubbed his face against the top of Terushima’s head. Terushima wasn’t even angry that the other man was messing up his hair.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just love Tanaka so much I needed him to be happy too!


	7. Chapter Seven

Terushima makes his grand escape in the morning. Except there’s nothing grand about it, and saying ‘escape’ makes him a little queasy. Instead he settles on, he’s going to breakfast early and Sawamura will just meet him there when he’s done in the bathroom. No matter that he pretended to be asleep while Sawamura carefully tried to wake him before chuckling quietly, kissing him on the temple, and ambling off to the bathroom.

Kissed him on the temple.

 _Kissed him on the temple._ As if they were some long term couple where Sawamura’s use to Terushima being impossible to wake up in the morning and he’s exasperated but still finds it adorable! Terushima may not be a morning person but he can get up rather quickly. Mostly because after years of sleeping in past his several alarms he has to be up and ready within minutes to be able to get to school right after the late bell. Sawamura doesn’t know him or his morning habits!

Terushima starts making coffee in the mostly empty cafeteria and he pauses, shoulders slumping. Why was he getting so angry at Sawamura for being a good, considerate person? Letting him sleep after a long night was nothing to get so angry about. So why was he angry?

The answer was plainly obvious, but made him feel no less guilty. Sawamura Daichi was the reason he was angry. His stupid soft smile and kind words, his ridiculous thighs and large shoulders. Those dumb warm chocolate eyes and deep rumbly laugh. His obvious concern and love for his friends, even those who had previously broken his warm, loyal heart. Sawamura Daichi was the root of all Terushima’s mixed bag of crazy feelings, and all those feelings were burning together, creating anger.

It didn’t help that after the meteor shower they had come as close to cheesy, romantic comedies version of _making love_ that made Terushima’s stomach hurt just thinking of it. Sawamura and Terushima didn’t _make love_ , they had sex, and sometimes they briefly just fuck. Terushima liked that word to describe their more physical activities, it was cold and crass and described what two people do who are not romantically entangled.

Except last night had been slow, so achingly slow Terushima still hasn’t completely recovered. Sawamura had seemed like he wanted to get to know every inch of Terushima’s body, up close and person, and he had etched his name in every discovered patch of skin. Terushima couldn’t even remember what he had said, he was almost positive he had blacked out for a moment there.

Terushima turned from the various set up of coffees to survey the room. He needed a distraction, and he almost weeped when he saw the perfect one in the form of a small bundle of ginger colored energy and love. Hinata looked pleased and half asleep as he ate his breakfast and read something on his phone.

“Mornin’ Shouyou.” Terushima greeted, probably a bit more enthusiastic than was actually needed. But he was so thankful for the appearance of Hinata, otherwise he’d have to go over and interrupt Tanaka and Ennoshita, who were sitting close, heads bent towards each other and looking like they were planning the next 40 years of their life.

“Morning!” Hinata chirped happily.

“You missed the meteor shower last night.” Terushima slid into the seat across from Hinata, blowing on his steaming coffee as he watched the apple of Hinata’s cheeks turn red, and that color spread to his whole face.

“O-oh? I did?” Hinata asked, stumbling over his words and he might as well have a sign around his neck that said ‘I had great sex all night long’.

“So, who tops, you or Aone?” Hinata sputtered and Terushima laughed, apologizing though it wasn’t completely sincere. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry! Your boyfriend came in last night, oh Shouyou- that’s so dirty, I didn’t mean it like that.” Terushima laughed harder as Hinata tried to hide his red face. “You have a dirty mind, that’s great.”

“Yuuji!” Hinata pleaded, but he was laughing too so Terushima knew he hadn’t done too much damage.

“But he got here early then?” Terushima grinned, taking a careful sip of his coffee before putting it on the table to cool for a bit longer.

“Yes.” Hinata was still red, but he looked pleased at this new turn of events. “He’s tired- stop, don’t laugh! He’s been travelling a lot, so I’m letting him sleep. I could do some work in our room but if I’m up, he’ll feel the need to get up too.” Hinata shoved eggs and rice into his mouth to still the words pouring out. Terushima reached out and took a sausage.

“I have to warn you, you might be hearing a lot of things about tippy toe kisses, especially from Oikawa, he seemed very thrilled when he saw it happen.” Hinata stopped eating and groaned. “Oh yes, we saw it all, we were out laying down on blankets.”

“Was everyone there?” Hinata asked, cringing.

“Some of Oikawa’s friends were missing, but most of the people who knew Aone in high school were there.” Terushima was grinning again. “Why did you keep it a secret?”

“I didn’t mean to!” Hinata sighed. “Takanobu travels a lot for work, because he’s so big and intimidating people tend not to argue with him, but he’s also really level headed so when people do argue, he doesn’t ever lose his cool. But it means we don’t get to spend a lot of time together as it is.” Hinata was squirming in his seat, but he was smiling slightly at the thought of his boyfriend, which was 10 different kinds of adorable.

“So instead of spending precious time introducing him to your friends, you decided to keep him all to yourself?” Terushima asked and then added on, when Hinata looked guilty. “I understand, as much as you love your friends you know it wouldn’t be a five minute meet and greet. It’d be an all day thing, or all night, and suddenly you’ve lost time.”

“We’ve known each other since high school, he was a year older, but we played a lot against each other, and there were a couple training camps.” Hinata stumbled over the words ‘training camps’, his face turning red once more.

“Ohoho, that’s new news!” Kuroo’s happy cackle came from behind Terushima before he slid into the seat next to him, placing a plate in front of Terushima full of food. Terushima eyed it suspiciously as Kozume sat down next to Hinata.

“He didn’t do anything to it, despite the dumb look Tetsu’s really-” Kozume sighed, as if admitting this was painful. “Kind.” Terushima laughed as Kuroo faked wiping tears from his eyes.

“Kenma, that was the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me.” Kuroo smirked. Kozume rolled his eyes, but his lips were tilted upwards. “Anyways! Back to so-called training camps, everyone thought you were so innocent and naive and you were using our precious training camps as an excuse to get busy.”

“I-I didn’t!” Hinata sputtered before pulling himself up straight. “Anyways, I wasn’t the one caught with Bokuto in one of the bathrooms, _practicing kissing_ .” Kuroo’s chopsticks dropped to the table, his mouth hanging open.

“You practiced kissing with Bo?” Kozume asked, sounding curious, at least sounding curious for him.

“That is so adorable, you wanted to be good at it before you kissed your high school sweetheart.” Terushima gushed, enjoying teasing Kuroo since he seemed so unflappable, but he was just kind of dorky too.

“Like that did any good, practically in my mid-twenties before he’d kiss me.” Kuroo grumbled, shooting a soft glare at Kozume, who ignored him and continued eating his breakfast. Kuroo’s face broke into a real smile before realizing he had an audience. “Anyways! What I was doing was pure and innocent and everything good in the world, you were just dirty and raunchy and probably messy.”

“We were teenagers!” Hinata groaned, hiding his face behind his hands but Terushima could have sworn he saw a grin before he hid his features. Terushima’s suspicions were made right when Hinata’s shoulders shook from laughter.

“Stop playing with those two, you were dating Kageyama at the time, you weren’t doing anything.” Kozume said, though he sounded amused at the spectacle.

“What? Really?” Kuroo asked, sounding disappointed. Hinata revealed his face and laughed.

“Yeah, nothing dirty or raunchy or even a little messy.” Hinata sighed, stretching out his legs beneath the table. “I was just friends with Takanobu in high school.”

“Though he wanted it to be more.” Kozume added quietly.

“No way!” Hinata laughed. “It took me half a year to stop shaking when he spoke to me.”

“But he spoke to you.” Kuroo pointed out.

“I didn’t even know he could talk.” Terushima admitted. Hinata laughed before he realized they were all serious.

“Good morning Aone!” Kuroo cheered as soon as a sleepy-looking Aone walked through the door into the small cafeteria. Aone bowed slightly before heading over to get food.

“See? I’m still not sure he can speak.” Terushima mock-whispered, causing Hinata to laugh and wave him away as Aone sat down on the unoccupied seat next to Hinata. Aone opened his mouth, looking like he was about to speak, but was interrupted at the last minute. Terushima leaned back in disappointment before looking over at the buffet table, watching Sugawara and Sawamura joke as they gathered food on their plates. Something twisted in Terushima’s chest but he ignored it and turned stubbornly back to his own food.

“How was your trip Takanobu?” Kozume asked, a small smile playing around his lips as Aone swallowed before answering.

“Informative.” Terushima should not have been surprised by how deep Aone’s voice was. Terushima guessed that if mountains could talk, they would have the same deep, rumbly bass that Aone spoke in. “I checked in on the cats before coming here, um-” Aone shifted, the chair creaking ominously as he peered above Hinata to Kozume.

“What has Lev broken?” Kozume asked, the small smile disappearing.

“I’m not sure, he wouldn’t let me past the door, he just held up the cats to let me see they were alright.” Aone answered, he frowned down at his breakfast. “He tried to measure me.” Kuroo choked on his eggs before letting out a cackling laugh. Kozume closed his eyes and sighed softly.

“Lev went to school with Kenma and Kuroo, he’s the same year as me, he’s huge and half-Russian and he lives on Kenma’s sofa sometimes because he gets kicked out of his apartments a lot.” Hinata explained, leaning across the table to talk in a low-quick voice to Terushima as Sugawara and Sawamura stopped by Tanaka and Ennoshita, talking quietly with them.

“Is he taller than you?” Terushima asked, trying to imagine someone even taller than Aone.

“Maybe.” Aone said after giving it some thought. “But he’s-” Aone stopped, looking for the right word that probably wasn’t too offensive.

“He’s a beanpole, the kid eats us out of house and home but he’s still skinny.” Kuroo answered, clearly having no problem insulting the absent Lev.

“Thank you for checking Takanobu, I know there wasn’t anything you could do.” Kozume went back to eating. “As long as the cats are okay.” He rectified.

“The cats might be the only things that are okay.” Kuroo mumbled to Terushima, causing him to laugh. Aone looked vaguely concerned, but his features softened as Hinata leaned into him to show him something on his phone.

“Just couldn’t wait to meet Hinata’s boyfriend, could you?” Sawamura whispered in Terushima’s ear before sitting next to him. Terushima stiffened and put his concentration on his food. Dumb, he was acting so dumb and immature and he only had two days left, what was he doing? How had things gotten so out of hand? Would he be welcomed amongst this group of friends after they fake broke up? Or maybe Sawamura would come clean, ‘Ha, yeah I never really had feelings for him, sorry about that’. Dumb, so dumb.

“Oh! Takanobu, this is Suga and Daichi, and Terushima.” Hinata introduced them, looking a bit embarrassed that he hadn’t done it before.

“Nice to see you again.” Sugawara greeted cheerfully, but there was a soft edge to his smile.

“Suga,” Sawamura tried to calm his friend, though it was less effective because he was trying to hold back laughter.

“Your Iron Wall nearly destroyed my team back in high school.” Sugawara snapped apart his chopsticks with scary-force. Aone looked as stoic as ever.

“Yes,” Aone said before glancing down at Hinata. “But you came back stronger.” Hinata beamed.

“Yeah! Noya with his Rolling Thunder! And Ryuu’s spike became even stronger, he could even do cut-shots by his third year!” Hinata continued to gush about everyone on his old team, even though Aone had clearly been speaking about him and not the rest of Karasuno. Sugawara deflated.

“I don’t think you’re going to get to him,” Sawamara said softly as Hinata continued to chat on about how wonderful his old team was. “Plus he could squish your skull in one hand.” Terushima looked at those hands, Aone had some fairly large ones and they were on the table, near HInata’s smaller, paler ones. Hinata was gesturing wildly with one hand, the other one suspiciously close to Aone’s, while Aone ate with his left hand, fumbling food every once and awhile.

Terushima’s own hand twitched before he pulled it close to his stomach, curling his fingers into a tight fist.

“We’re going to play volleyball today, Suga said!” Hinata was telling Aone, his eyes lighting up at the mention of volleyball. “It’s a surprise for Oikawa, we’re going to crush him into the ground.” Aone nodded, serious as always and without a speck of doubt that Hinata would do just that.

“Shouyou, that’s not a very nice thing to say about the bride-to-be.” Kuroo said, tsking his disapproval but his eyes had turned calculating at the mention of volleyball.

“What? That’s what Suga said we’d do.” Hinata said, looking sad that he might have said something offensive. Sugawara gave them a warm smile before continuing to mathematically devour his breakfast.

“Forgot how scary Suga can be.” Kuroo mock-whispered, causing the table to laugh.

“Are you going to play?” Sawamura asked, leaning closer to Terushima and looking interested in the answer. Terushima could feel that warm sensation in his belly, and he told himself it was because someone mentioned volleyball, not the challenging look in Sawamura’s eyes.

“Yeah, I guess I’ll dust off my old gym shoes.” Terushima said, even though Sawamura and him played on the neighborhood association and just had a game the previous week. Sawamura didn’t play as often, mostly he just practiced with the association because his busy hospital schedule didn’t really allow for much room besides a couple hours of sleep and rushed meals.

“How come you stopped playing, in Barcelona right?” Hinata asked, curiosity obvious in his eyes.

“I don’t know, felt like it I guess?” Terushima asked, tilting his head up to look at the ceiling but really his head was in the past. “We had a long weekend and I went travelling with a friend, when it was time to come back I just didn’t. I kept travelling until I finally found myself back in Tokyo.” Terushima shrugged.

“You just quit?” Hinata asked slowly, as if he couldn’t completely comprehend that.

“Yeah?” Terushima had always been impulsive. Going to Barcelona in the first place had been based purely on instinct, the instinct to get away from the hurt and pain of his first boyfriend and the nasty words and things he had done to him. After a while it got lonely, being half way across the globe. People stopped trying to communicate with him, the language barrier a burden after the novelty had worn off. “It stopped being fun.” So Terushima had quit and moved on.

“Stopped being fun?” Hinata asked and it was clear that he had no idea what Terushima was saying.

“Hinata played in college, he got a degree in teaching but that was mostly so he could coach. He was a high school volleyball coach for all of a year before a university asked him to coach for them.” Sawamura explained.

“Assistant coach.” Hinata corrected, his cheeks a little pink. “I could never go professional.” Which made more sense to Terushima now, Hinata couldn’t play professionally so he didn’t understand why someone who could, someone like Terushima, would quit for no reason.

“Not true.” Aone spoke up, brow furrowed just slightly.

“That- it wasn’t- it didn’t count.” Hinata stuttered, waving his hand.

“Shouyou?” Kuroo asked, even Kozume had looked up from his phone to look at Hinata.

“I- uh- I got an offer to play, but I couldn’t go.” Hinata cleared his throat before shooting up. “I’m going to go gather everyone up for volleyball! We should play before it gets too hot.” Hinata was running out, despite the fact that it was fall and the days no longer got very warm.

“He got an offer to play for a USA team, but his mother got sick.” Aone said into the sudden silence.

“USA?” Sugawara asked, jaw dropping. Apparently no one else had known about this.

“He is very good.” Aone spoke, pausing briefly to take a sip of his tea. “Better than he was in high school, he can even receive properly now.” After a brief pause, in which everyone took a moment to realize Aone had just told a joke, they started laughing.

 

\--------

 

“He’s a monster.” Terushima said with a laugh as he poured water over his face, trying to get the burning in his eyes from sweat to go away. Aone had not been joking about Hinata being ‘very good’, if anything he had been underselling Hinata. Even Terushima, with his boundless energy, was feeling run down after only two sets. Oikawa was squawking to his new team, trying to get them together to beat them. They switched around each teams after each game, trying to keep the professional players from all conjugating onto one side.

“He would make the libero name proud!” Nishinoya cheered, catching Hinata in a headlock. Terushima, from little snippets of conversation, had learned that unlike mostly everyone else, Hinata had no real middle school experience with volleyball, mostly everything he learned, he learned in high school. Apparently he had started off with an odd quick with Kageyama that made them unstoppable, for a short time, but his basics left something to be desired.

Hinata’s basics were no joke now. Perhaps Hinata wasn’t as graceful getting to the ball, or getting it back to the setter like Sawamura or Nishinoya or Iwaizumi could, but he was hellaciously fast.

“Okay!” Sugawara called out, towel around his neck. “How about we take a fifteen minute break?” There were some whining but the majority won out and they all gathered around to grab some cold drinks and pieces of fruit Sugawara had somehow produced out of seemingly thin air.

“Yuuji!” Hinata was bouncing next to Terushima, a piece of watermelon in both hands. “You are amazing!” Then he started making sound effects to explain what he thought of Terushima’s unusual play method. Terushima felt himself grin, felt energy filling his body as if Hinata was refueling him.

“Dumbass! No one understands when all you can say is GWAHH and WHOOSH!” Kageyama barked out, throwing an empty water bottle at Hinata, who easily dodged it.

“Yamaguchi and you both understand me fine!” Hinata shot back, using his legs to kick at Kageyama since his hands were still occupied.

“That’s just because we had three years to get use to your level of stupid!” Kageyama kicked back, opening his mouth to undoubtedly say something else insulting but Hinata shoved a piece of watermelon into that open orifice. Kageyama chewed calmly, leveling a glare on Hinata.

“You do start to understand the sound effects the longer you’re around him.” Kuroo said, sounding a little mortified.

“Is your intelligence dropping? You don’t really have much to spare, do you?” Oikawa asked, looking pleased with himself. “Ow! Mean, Iwa!” Terushima hadn’t seen the hit, but he had heard the loud THWAK that followed.

“Do not insult your guests Asskawa.” Iwaizumi muttered around a mouthful of apple. Sawamura stepped up next to Terushima, smiling fondly at his friends, shoulder brushing against Terushimas.

“Where did Asahi go?” Nishinoya grumbles out. “I’ll go find him!” He yells before anyone can react.

“I’ll go with you, I have to grab something in my room anyways.” Terushima offers, and Nishinoya grins before walking off in the direction of the inn. Terushima follows him, feeling his throat tighten as Sawamura’s fingers graze his wrist.

“Did something happen between you and Daichi?” Nishinoya asked once they were out of hearing range of the large group of friends. “You two haven’t been acting like yourselves all morning. No teasing or touching.” Terushima hadn’t pegged Nishinoya for the observant kind, which was dumb on his part, Nishinoya was obviously completely loyal to the people he loved. Just because he was going through a difficult time with Azumane didn’t mean he stopped paying attention to the things around him.

“It’s complicated.” Terushima answers because it’s as close to the truth as he can get. Nishinoya snorts and gives Terushima such a look, he can feel himself getting embarrassed. Terushima guessed that Nishinoya had a better handle on what exactly ‘complicated’ was. “That was insensitive.” And not in the usual, purposeful way Terushima usually is insensitive.

“Forget about it.” Nishinoya laughs, good naturedly. “But what’s complicated exactly? You like Sawamura, right?” Terushima nods, he can be honest in that answer at least. “And he likes you?”

“I don’t know if he feels the same way as I do.” Terushima answers more carefully that time.

“11 years.” Nishinoya said before grinning at Terushima’s confused look. “That’s how long I’ve known Daichi, roughly 11 years. Even before he was Karasuno’s captain, he was always my captain, you know? And he’s always been too serious, only really letting his guard down every once and awhile. When I was a kid I thought it was just his personality, some people are just serious, yeah? But Daichi isn’t, he loves to pull pranks, he’s probably the best at them and he’s hilarious, but he also feels like he’s responsible for everyone around him. He has to make sure everyone is safe and happy and secure before he can be himself, and for a while a lot of us were-” Nishinoya motions wildly.

“Not really safe or happy or secure?” Terushima asked.

“Right.” Nishinoya sighed, probably remembering that he was exactly happy right then either. “So he put himself on the backburner a lot, especially when it came to Suga.” Nishinoya turned red, eyes wide. “Not that it’s Suga’s fault! You can’t- you can’t help who you love, right? Man, I’m butchering all this up. I just wanted to say you’re good for him, and I’ve known him for over a decade, and I’ve never seen him look at someone the way he looks at you. Not even Suga or Bedhead back there.”

“Daichi deserves to be happy.” Terushima said. “And safe and secure.” He added on with a smile.

“You got it.” Nishinoya grinned. “So if you two want to be together just be together, feelings will sort themselves out eventually- Rumi?” Nishinoya startled, staring down the hall where Azumane was standing with a tall woman.

“Oh!” The woman exclaimed, turning to Nishinoya and Terushima with shock. Azumane’s eyes nervously flickered to Nishinoya, looking him up and down as if searching for an injury.

“I’m sorry, we- volleyball outside, I just- we’ll go!” Terushima had never seen Nishinoya fold in on himself like that, or even stutter.

“No, wait, please don’t.” The woman, Rumi, said quickly. She was beautiful, it was the first thought Terushima had of her, followed quickly by how tall she was. She was only a couple centimeters shorter than Azumane, and fairly curvy with long black hair tied back in a braid and soft hazel eyes.

“Um?” Nishinoya looked at Azumane and fidgeted.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to intrude, I know you all don’t get to see each other as often as you like.” Rumi turned back to Azumane, placing her hand softly on his still twisting fingers. “I felt like I should tell you this in person, I did call you, but you must have been busy. Please, it’s alright Asahi, it took me awhile to see past my own small world to see how trapped you were too by our parents arrangement.”

“Rumi-” Azumane started but the woman cut him off.

“When the idea of marrying you was brought to me, it seemed like such a distant concept that I agreed to it. My parents marriage was arranged and they are perfectly content, and I’ve never had romantic feelings for anyone, so it seemed a good system to me.” Rumi cupped Azumane’s cheek carefully, and Nishinoya folded in on himself as if he had been punched. “I’ve been offered a job in India, it’s lucrative and it could be a good stepping stone to better opportunities for me. I have already accepted, and of course I don’t expect you to follow me there.”

“What does this mean?” Azumane asked, voice soft, it looked like he was fighting a losing battle of keeping his eyes trained on who Terushima now realized was his fiance, and not look over at Nishinoya.

“It means I’m calling the arrangement off. I thought it would be easier for you if I did it.” Rumi smiled, taking a step back from him. “I’m sorry I didn’t notice your pain earlier, it took someone else to point it out to me. I hope you use this opportunity to find your own happiness, you have truly wonderful friends who wish nothing but the best for you.” Rumi turned and walked towards Nishinoya, touching his shoulder gently. “Please take care of him, and I’m sorry if you were hurt also.”

Rumi walked away and the hallway was deadly silent.

Terushima puts his hand on Nishinoya’s shoulder, the one Rumi had touched earlier. Nishinoya jumps and looks up at him, like he’s surprised to see Terushima there.

“If you two want to be together just be together, feelings will sort themselves out eventually.” Terushima repeats the words that were said to him only minutes before because really, it was good advice. Terushima pats Nishinoya back, a hard tap he had felt many times during his volleyball career, usually to get him out of some stump he’s fallen into. Nishinoya staggers but when he stands up straight, his shoulders are pushed back and he’s not curling in on himself anymore.

Terushima calls that a win and walks away, giving them the privacy they deserve.

Another game was in full swing, but Sawamura switched out with someone else as soon as he saw Terushima walking back towards their little set up. It was obvious that many of them had only played volleyball on a court, and not on soft grass, but that just made things more amusing. Listening to Oikawa yell every time he gained another grass stain was pretty funny also.

“Lost Noya too?” Sawamura asked, warm smile in place as Terushima leaped forward and wrapped his arms around Sawamura’s waist. “Whoa- not that I’m complaining, but what brought this on?” It was obvious Sawamura had noticed the difference in attitude from Terushima, but he had been baring it with a smile. Terushima never had been one to stay angry or upset, and he certainly couldn’t stay that way towards Sawamura.

“You talked to Rumi, didn’t you?” Terushima asked into his neck, where he was currently nuzzling. Sawamura stiffened for a moment before wrapping his arms around Terushima, running fingers down the long length of his spine.

“She’s here?” Sawamura asked, for all intents and purposes sounding merely curious.

“She was.” Terushima answered, squeezing Sawamura tightly as if that could get him to spill the beans. “She left, for good. She’s calling off the engagement. Apparently someone talked to her.”

“Wow that is very meddlesome.” Terushima peeked up at Sawamura, who had the gall to look shocked. “Me? You can ask anyone here, I’ve never been known to meddle!” Terushima narrowed his eyes.

“I just don’t think you’ve ever been caught before, you’re a master manipulator! A wolf amongst sheep, I need to warn them, to protect the babies, who knows what else you’ve meddled in!” Terushima made a move to step away but Sawamura held on tighter, which was really Terushima’s plan all along.

“They’ll never believe you.” Sawamura said softly into Terushima’s ear.

“Who else have you manipulated?” Terushima asked, fingers curling into the fabric of Sawamura’s sweaty shirt. “I have ways of making you talk.” A slow, sweet smile curled up Sawamura’s lips and Terushima’s heart did a slow flip.

“I don’t manipulate.” Sawamura said, the tip of his nose brushing against Terushima’s. “Though I have been known to dabble in some meddling.” His eyes flickered up, landing on where Oikawa was showing the newest grass stain to a mock-concerned looking Sugawara. “Stop, don’t give me that look. Suga wouldn’t- because of what happened between us he was unwilling to believe he deserved happiness like that. I just told them the truth.”

“You’re like a cupid, I’m going to get your arrows and you’ll have to run around in tighty whiteys!” Sawamura scrunched his face up in distaste, but Terushima was pleased at the idea. Maybe he could convince Sawamura to dress up as cupid for Halloween, after a few drinks of course.

“Okay! Everyone go shower and we’ll meet back in an hour for the rehearsal dinner.” Sugawara yelled out, various people groaning about sore bodies while Kageyama and Hinata continued to pop the ball back and forth, yelling that the other person was going to drop it.

Terushima had just another day and a half of this- whatever Sawamura and he were doing. He was too afraid to think too closely about what Nishinoya had said, how long he had known Sawamura and how different the old captain was around Terushima. It was something he had heard from various other people in different ways throughout the past couple days.

Hope was a fickle bitch, and Terushima wasn’t willing to put too much faith in it. Instead he would do what he always did, live in the moment and push thoughts about looming futures away to enjoy the now. Because the now involved a smiling Sawamura pulling him into the shower, laughing between kisses as they hit elbows on walls and knocked little bottles over because they were two large men in a fair too small shower. Now involved Sawamura being his, even if it was only for a couple more days. Now is where Terushima wanted to stay.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Only two more chapters to go! This story got COMPLETELY out of hand, it was only suppose to be a one-shot, then only suppose to be at maximum four chapters. How does this keep on happening?


	8. Chapter Eight

Terushima’s leg bounced as he tried, for the seventh time, to do up the cuff of his own shirt. He groaned and laid back down on the futon, listening to the silence in the room and more importantly, the bathroom before letting out a louder groan. Terushima cocked his head to the side, listening harder before wiggling his way further up onto the futon, and closer to the bathroom door and letting out the longest, loudest groan he could.

“Are you making a porno in there?” Sawamura’s amused voice came out from the mostly closed bathroom door. Terushima grinned and flipped his long body so he was laying on his stomach, face buried in Sawamura’s pillow. “I’m worried that you’re not answering that very simple question.” Terushima laughed into the pillow, popping his head up when he heard the sound of the door open.

“Oh my-” Terushima started cracking up, his body vibrating against the bedding and making a mess of their once tidy bed. “What- where- Daichi!” Terushima held out his hand, as if that would make the image go away, as he gripped his now hurting stomach with his other hand.

“What? Is something wrong? Did I not do up my zipper?” Sawamura looked down and a new peal of laughter left Terushima.

“S-stop, please!” Terushima tried to push himself up but he was laughing too hard.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Sawamura shifted and Terushima fell face forward back into the pillow, laughter squeezing out of his chest. “Yuuji, you’re acting very odd, should I go get you something to drink?” He raised his arm just the slightest bit, pointing.

“You can’t even lift your arm, can you?” Terushima peaked up at Sawamura, taking in the full effect when he had gotten his laughter down to uncontrollable giggles. “Oh Daichi.” Terushima shook his head.

“I guess it’s been awhile since I’ve worn this shirt.” Sawamura said, his cheeks a little pink despite the carefree smile on his face. The white button up was tight, the buttons looked like they were losing a battle of holding it all together. Tersuhima could see Sawamura couldn’t even fit an undershirt under it, which meant the white material was nearly see-through against his dark skin. The seams along his shoulders and biceps looked fit to bursting.

“How old is that shirt?” Terushima asked, fiddling with his phone before sitting up straight and snapping a picture as Sawamura tried to keep his arms perfectly straight by his sides. Sawamura narrowed his eyes at the phone but said nothing else as Terushima clicked a couple buttons and then turned it around, so Sawamura could see he had made it his background.

“Yuuji!” Sawamura said in exasperation, lifting his hands to snatch the phone away before realizing his shirt was about to rip. “A couple years? It was my interview shirt in college I guess. I didn’t realize I had gained so much weight.” Sawamura touched his stomach with a frown.

“Um-” Terushima nearly laughed at the pathetic look on Sawamura’s face before deciding to help out the poor man. “Daichi, you’re built like a brick shit house.” Terushima rolled off the futon and started to go through Sawamura’s bags, looking for something acceptable to wear to the rehearsal dinner. Terushima and Sawamura were basically the same height, but Terushima was muscular in a lean way, while Sawamura was muscular in a- well a muscles on top of muscles kind of way.

“Then why?’ Sawamura motioned, small movements, to the too-tight shirt.

“God Daichi, take it off I can’t take care you serious like that.” Terushima laughed, holding up a shirt before tossing it to the side. “Because it’s only natural to be more bulkier than your 18 year old self.” It was saying something because Sawamura Daichi at 18 was plenty muscular. Terushima had seen pictures, and he was nearly glad they had never played a game against each other because 17 year old Terushima had even less control than 27 year old Terushima.

“I use to be fat.” Sawamura shrugged off the shirt, kneeling down next to Terushima as the blonde man held up a shirt and deemed that worthy.

“Daichi, everyone was chubby when they were 8 years old, you can’t use that excuse.” Terushima let his eyes drift down Sawamura’s shoulders, pectorals, and landed on his stomach. “Even if you do develop a pooch, you’d still probably be the most attractive man I know.” Terushima stood and stretched, trying to act casual and not freak out about his run away tongue. He couldn’t help it, imagining Sawamura in 10 or 20 years, losing some of the definition that comes almost naturally with being a 20 year old who works out regularly. Terushima thinks Sawamura could easily be one of those men who looked good with a little extra weight.

“You said probably.” Sawamura teased as he pulled on the cream colored sweater before standing, undoing his belt to tuck the sweater into his black slacks.

“When did you become so self conscious?” Terushima asked, fake disdain in his voice as his mind wandered to 48 year old Sawamura, maybe with some gray at his temples. Lines by his eyes and mouth revealing how often he truly laughs and smiles. Terushima thinks about pushing his face back into the pillow on the bed and trying to regulate his breathing because the mental image was nearly too much for him to handle.

“Come here.” Sawamura slipped a finger in Terushima’s belt loop, tugging him closer as he started to button the cuffs on Terushima's button down, the ones he had been having such a difficult time doing by himself.

“Hopefully your suit tomorrow fits better.” Terushima said because he couldn’t handle the heavy silence, pressing down on him and making him want things. Making him want to be nearly 50 with that gray haired version of Sawamura. Making him want to see him slowly age towards that, and go even beyond that. He thinks Sawamura would make the cutest old man and what is wrong with him?

“Suga made me get a new one.” Sawamura admits bashfully. “I don’t really dress up all that often.” Neither does Terushima, he had bought nice shirts and slacks before he left so he wouldn’t embarrass Sawamura, but he shouldn’t have worried. If Terushima decided to wear his rattiest pair of jeans and his worn out sneaks, Sawamura would have been fine with it.

“He knows you well.” Terushima said, without a hint of malice in his tone. He knew there was nothing between Sugawara and Sawamura now, besides a new budding friendship built off of an old one. “You two seem to be getting along better.” Sawamura’s smiles had been genuine and not the least bit forced during volleyball. Sawamura pulled Terushima’s hand up to his mouth slowly, gently placing a kiss in the middle of his palm before moving onto the next buttons on his other wrist. Terushima could almost see his soul leaving his body.

“It’s thanks to you.” Sawamura said.

“Pft-” Sawamura placed another kiss on the palm of his other hand. “Daichi.” Terushima groaned, placing his hand over Sawamura’s face and pushing him gently away. Sawamura laughed and backed away.

“You just looked so serious, I couldn’t help it.” Sawamura tapped Terushima’s bottom lip. “And now you’re pouting.”

“I’m not pouting! You’re just embarrassing!” Terushima whacked Sawamura way before storming out of the room. Of course he paused, waiting for Sawamura to slip on his shoes and follow him out, closing the door and looking up with a grin when he saw Terushima waiting.

“You look like you’re dressed up to go on your first date.” Sawamura teased.

“See! Embarrassing!” Terushima huffed, storming off down the hall but he only got a couple steps before Sawamura was entwining his fingers with Terushima’s.

“I’m sorry, please forgive me.” Sawamura said, barely hiding his smile.

“Compliment me first.” Terushima grumbled, though he wasn’t doing any better hiding his smile either.

“You look very nice.” Terushima rolled his eyes dramatically, pulling back his hand. “Wait wait wait.” Sawamura laughed before nudging him to back up against a wall. Sawamura leaned close, placing his free hand on Terushima’s hip. “You-” The press of Sawamura’s body against his, warm and hard and unyielding. “Look-” Soft kisses against his throat, his adams apple bobs as he automatically tilts his head, giving more skin for Sawamura to work with. “Very.” Hot breath against his ear, it should be gross, make him cringe away but his knees go weak instead. “Nice.” The word is a drawl against his lips, a soft pressure that makes Terushima _moan_ .

“Excuse me, but we have a wedding rehearsal to get to?” A slightly high-pitched, sing-songy voice says and Terushima can feel all the color drain out of his face before rushing back in just as quickly as there are a couple snorts and coughs. “If you two are quite done?” Oikawa asks, only sounding mildly displeased as he smiles sweetly, too sweetly, at them. There’s a group of people behind him and Terushima stares at the ground, cursing it for not opening up when it desperately needs it to.

“That was hot Sawamura!” Tanaka’s loud voice crows from the back of the crowd.

“Kiss him again!” Hinata’s happy tone rings out and Terushima looks up to scold or cuss at Sawamura, but he’s just as red as Terushima feels. Seeing Sawamura so thoroughly embarrassed makes Terushima’s own shame die down and suddenly he’s laughing.

“Rude!” Oikawa yells out but he’s already being dragged away by a chuckling Sugawara. The crowd quickly disperses besides for Tanaka, who’s arms are crossed and there’s a shit-eating grin plastered on his face.

“Suga made me in charge of getting you to the dinner, we’re already missing Yuu and Asahi.” Tanaka said and Terushima perks up, dodging out of Sawamura’s hold to pat him on the back.

“Is that a good thing? That they are missing?” Terushima asked, not knowing the other two men well enough to know if they would take the chance presented to them. Even if the arranged marriage was taken off the table, it had seemed like the real problem came from Azumane’s parents disapproving of homosexuality. Something like that was hard to overcome in such a short time period.

“I don’t know,” Tanaka answered, grin disappearing as his arms dropped to his side. “We’ll see.” Tanaka pulls himself together quickly, it’s impressive to Terushima how the bald man refuses to let himself stay down in the dumps. “Come on you two.” And he’s pulling and pushing them towards where everyone else. People are still setting up the area, but it already looks beautiful.

“Sugawara probably did all this, hmm?” Terushima whispered to Iwaizumi as they slide into line, waiting for directions on what to do. Iwaizumi grins at him.

“You catch on quick.” Iwaizumi said, before starting to laugh. “Tooru use to have these ugly mustard-colored pants, somehow they got lost in the move when Suga and Oikawa moved in together.” They both looked over to where Sugawara was directing Hinata to stand, the man looking up and grinning at them as if he knew what they were talking about.

“Scary.” Terushima and Iwaizumi said at the same time, looking away quickly and trying to act innocent.

\-------

The rehearsal dinner is a disaster from start to finish. Actually the rehearsal dinners, as in multiple, are all disasters, the next becoming a bigger problem than the last. Oikawa continues to demand they do it until they get it perfect, and he really has no room to speak since his friends are causing as much distraction and problems as the former members of Karasuno.

Terushima ends up in the back with those not involved in the actual ceremony. Mostly he ends up talking to Aone and Kozume, Terushima doing most of the actual talking but he doesn’t mind. Terushima learns that Aone is just quiet, not shy or introverted like Kozume. Terushima also learns that Kozume enjoys being around people, but as time goes on he feels gradually gets tired and pulls back into himself.

Terushima can’t help but find it interesting that these are the people Hinata has surrounded himself with. Those two, plus ‘can’t read a social situation to save his life’ Kageyama makes Terushima laugh with mirth. Hinata is one of the most social beings Tersuhima has ever met, quite like himself actually, and Terushima tends to surround himself with other social creatures. Hinata seems to collect every awkward little bird he can find and cuddles them close until they feel completely comfortable around him.

Somewhere around the sixth and seventh rehearsal Terushima calls it quits. He hits the hot springs, relaxing solo and texting with Bobota and Futamata until he almost drops his phone into the water for the nth time and decides to get out and stop tempting fate.

Terushima pulls on a pair of sweats, only noticing that they are definitely not his by the way they hang off his hips, but he shrugs and slides into bed. He’s too relaxed and languid to care about wearing Sawamura’s sweats, and part of him hopes this means the other man will crawl into bed in his underwear. Or nothing. Nothing is always a good look on Sawamura.

Between that odd moment of being awake and falling asleep Terushima thinks of a 50 year old Sawamura in the early morning, a pair of worn sweatpants hanging off his own hips as he leans against the counter, staring at the coffee machine as if that will make it cough up the goods quicker. He has a soft-looking blue shirt on that’s seen better days, and a pair of dark rimmed glasses that only magnify his tired eyes, laugh lines creasing out as he squints in the early morning light. His hair is a little longer, dusted with silver and he hums happily when his mug starts filling with coffee.

Terushima dreams of a future Sawamura with gray-hair, smiling and greeting him in the soft lighting of a random Thursday morning.

\-------

“Daichi that’s too much.” Terushima complained, shielding his eyes from the sight that Sawamura was presenting from him. “I thought that stupid shirt from yesterday was too much but no, this is really-”

“What’s wrong with it? Suga picked it out, everyone is basically wearing the same thing.” Sawamura interrupts, walking quickly back to the bathroom to check his reflection. He had even taken extra time shaving to make sure he didn’t miss any spots that morning. Sawamura walked out of the bathroom to see Terushima sprawled across the bed.

“Take me, my body is ready.” Terushima posed, all pouting lips and lifting his shirt up provocatively. “Daichi you ass! Don’t laugh at me when I proposition to you for sex!” Terushima pelted him with pillows.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry! It was just so unexpected!” Sawamura was laughing, rubbing the back of his neck and pulling the shirt tight across his arms and shoulders in the process. “You just said I look stupid and now you want me to take you?”

“I didn’t say you look stupid, I said it’s too much, as in, no one should be allowed to look that good.” Terushima grumbled from where he had buried his head into the blankets, because he had thrown all the pillows at Sawamura.

“Oh.” Sawamura’s surprised noise came from across the room. “Really?” Terushima looked up to see the hint of a blush rising on Sawamura’s cheeks, along with a warm smile spreading across his face. Honestly, Terushima could not believe that the other man wasn’t aware of how attractive he was.

“Daichi on a regular day, you in scrubs and your fancy ass white lab coat, you’re like a solid 9.” Sawamura is smiling more widely now, his blush spreading to his ears. “When you work out and your sweaty with your shirt sticking to all the best places, solid 9.5. When you’re lounging in sweats and a shirt or when you’re out and about in jeans and a sweater, solid 9 again! But you go and put a vest on you? My god man, if I had panties I would be throwing them at you.” Sawamura is pressing a hand against his mouth, somehow looking pleased and humbled at the same time, and really, Terushima didn’t stand a chance. The man cleaned up so nice and he wasn’t exactly a slob to begin with.

“So are you saying I should wear vests more often?” Sawamura asked.

“Oh yeah sure, go do that and make random ladies on the street pregnant when you glance their way.” Terushima rolled to his feet, straightening out his clothes like it mattered because no one would be looking at him while he was next to Sawamura. Hell, Terushima wouldn’t be looking at anyone else besides Sawamura.

“So no more vests?” Sawamura asked.

“My knees are weak, Daichi, my knees are actually weak! I have great knees!” Terushima exclaimed, brushing Sawamura’s hands away when he came closer to fix Terushima’s tie.

“You do have great knees.” Sawamura agreed, smile back in place.

“Don’t compliment me, I’m not ready to be pregnant yet Daichi.” Terushima whined.

“Wait, so you’re saying that I’m so attractive that you are literally growing reproductive organs in which I can get you pregnant with only a look?” Sawamura teased before Terushima ducked around him, heading out of their room and not deigning to answer him.

Terushima turned around and made an undignified sound when he smacked right into a large, warm chest.

“Azumane, not that I don’t mind becoming personally acquainted with a chest as magnificent as yours, warn a guy, would you?” Terushima rubbed his nose as he took a couple steps back to realize that Azumane was pale and stuttering. “It’s fine, stop apologizing, it really is a nice chest.”

“D-D-Daichi.” Azumane stuttered out, stumbling to Sawamura and gripping his shoulders.

“Asahi? Okay, breath buddy, that’s right, now just tell me what’s wrong.” Sawamura patted what parts he could reach while still in Azumane’s tight grip.

“Suga-” Azumane glanced around quickly, looking like he was going to get whiplash. “No one can find Suga, Oikawa hasn’t noticed because he didn’t want to see Suga before the wedding day? I don’t know! No one can find him!” Azumane was going into a full blown meltdown and Sawamura was losing his color.

“It’s fine, we know Suga, right?” Sawamura pried Azumane’s hands off his shoulders. “Something probably went wrong with the food or flowers and he went off on his own to fix it or find replacements.” Azumane’s breathing began to return to normal.

“O-oh? Oh! Yes, that- wow, that makes- I just, I need to lie down.” Azumane hung his head, his hair and clothes in disarray.

“Yeah, you go lay down and I’ll find Suga, okay? Get yourself cleaned up.” Azumane nodded and stumbled back to his room. Terushima wished he knew if that was Azumane’s actual room or the one he was splitting with Nishinoya.

“Poor guy.” Terushima said while Sawamura laughs.

“He’s been that way since I’ve known him, his brain just races to the worst possible conclusion and he’s done for if no one spots the downwards spiral.” Sawamura rubs the back of his neck, glancing up and down the hall before nodding for Terushima to follow him. “Back in high school, before any of us really knew or understood how anxiety worked, it was harder for him because he knew something was wrong, knew something was different how his mind processed information and handled problems, but he could never point out why. Sometimes we’d get mad at him for being anxious all the time, that must have been even more difficult.” Sawamura sighed, peeking into rooms and waving at people as they walked around the inn.

“He’s getting help with it now?” Terushima asked.

“Yeah, it took a while because his father refused to believe there was a problem, at least a problem that Asahi wasn’t doing on purpose but who the hell would choose to have anxiety attacks all the time?” Sawamura’s voice rumbled with past anger before he shrugged it off. “Noya convinced him to go see someone, because Noya has always had anger issues, his parents have had him in therapy for a while.”

“Nishinoya’s good for him.” Terushima said with a confident smile.

“They are good for each other.” Sawamura returned his smile. “Asahi grounds Noya without trying to force him to calm down or completely twist his personality around. Noya softens Asahi, makes it okay for him to have his problems while giving him a safe space.” Terushima liked that, liked the soft smile Sawamura had whenever he spoke about his friends. “In high school Asahi quit volleyball for a bit, it was actually Hinata who talked him back into it.”

“Why does that not surprise me?” Terushima asked.

“Hinata is really confident, but he also gets intimidated easily. He knows all about nerves.” They talked idly about everyone Terushima had met, plus a few others. It was like the Karasuno players couldn’t go to a training camp or play a game against another team without making friends with everyone there.

The longer their search continues with no sign of Sugawara the shorter Sawamura’s answers get. His face loses that easy smile, the warmth that fills up his features is gone as a pinch look takes hold. The same look he gets when he’s had a bad shift at the hospital, when he couldn’t find the problem and fix it soon enough. Terushima is about to suggest asking Oikawa, as a last resort, but Sawamura is holding his phone up to his ear, calling Sugawara for the nth time.

“Wait!” Terushima raises his arm to stop Sawamura from speaking, his hand accidently slapping against his chest. “Call again, I think I heard something?” They stop and hold their breaths, as if that could cover any sounds, as Sawamura calls again. “In there- the out of order bathroom.” Sawamura tries the door but it doesn’t budge, so he knocks.

“Suga? Koushi? It’s Daichi.” Sawamura said softly, as if Sugawara wouldn’t know his voice after over a decade of friendship. There’s silence followed by something scraping against the ground before the door cracks open. Sawamura and Terushima rush inside as Sugawara quickly closes the door and puts the stopper back into place to keep anyone else from entering. “Hey Sug, liking the bathrobe look, it’s nice but- uh, buddy, you’re getting married soon so maybe a shower?”

“I don’t know if I can do this.” Sugawara said, so quietly they both had to lean forward to catch all the words. Terushima looks at Sawamura in panic, but the other man doesn’t even hesitate for a minute as he steps forward and rubs Sugawara’s arms.

“Why don’t you think you can get married?” Sawamura asks in what Terushima can only assume is his best Doctor Sawamura tone. All soft consonants and clear words, calming yet firm.

“Me and Oikawa Tooru?” Sugawara laughs, but it’s not a happy sound. He runs his hands through his ash colored hair, making it stick out even more than it already had. He looks like a mad scientist, Terushima thinks it’s amazingly adorable even though the situation is dire. “Oikawa Tooru, famous playboy? Famous for dating women, all women, not a single man! He’s never even expressed interest in a man before! Not even masculine women, have you seen the women he’s dated? Have you? Because I have, I’ve seen them all. I’ve met many of them Daichi, I roomed with Oikawa in college.” Sugawara starts pacing the length of the bathroom, which isn’t much room so Terushima and Sawamura step to the side to give him a couple more steps.

“Those relationships never lasted more than a couple weeks, you know that Suga.” Sawamura said, still in his soft doctor voice. Terushima wonders if it was also his captain voice too.

“Exactly! A couple weeks, and that’s the good long relationships!” Sugawara pulls at his hair.

“Has he given you any reason to suspect that he might be cheating? Or unhappy in anyway?” Terushima asked, speaking up because he’s in this now. Sugawara looks at him, thinks it over before groaning and rubbing his eyes until his face is red.

“No, no- he’d never- Tooru would never hurt me like that.” Sugawara admitted softly. “He’s never cheated on anyone, and he’s usually the one who gets broken up with.”

“Because those women wanted to date the idea of Oikawa Tooru, male model and professional athlete. Charming and suave and well dressed.” Terushima said, watching Sugawara nod softly. “Is that the Oikawa Tooru you know?” Sugawara gives a small smile, but it’s genuine so Terushima calls it a win.

“Not at all.” Sugawara sighs, runs his hands through his hair again, and sighs once more.

“So what’s the real reason for this Suga? You know he loves you, and who cares if he’s dated a thousand women and exactly zero men, why should that matter if he’s dated you, wants to spend the rest of his life with you, marry you?” Sawamura asked.

“Me, I’m the reason, I’m the problem.” Sugawara looks up at Sawamura, tears in his eyes before looking away. “What happened between us- no, please just- I’m sorry, let me get this out. What happened between us was all my fault, it came out of nowhere for you, I know it did. I hurt you, no matter how much you try to tell me otherwise, I know I did. I hurt my best friend because I fell for my roommate, someone I thought was straight and a playboy to boot. Why would I ever- I don’t deserve the happily ever after.” Sawamura stepped forward, using the corner of Sugawara’s robe to wipe away his tears.

“What a stupid thing to say.” Sawamura said softly and Sugawara choked, glared up at him. “People fall out of love, it happens, and it definitely happens when you’re separated by a four-hour train ride and an hour bus ride. It didn’t help that we were just teenagers when we got together, we weren’t fully formed adults. We were changing rapidly, changing into the kind of great people we are now. It hurt, I won’t lie about that, but you deserve all the happiness in the world Sugawara Koushi, and if that happiness comes in the form of former playboy Oikawa Tooru, then that’s just what it is.” Sugawara gave a watery laugh, glancing over at Terushima.

“Plus you have Terushima now?” Sugawara asked, eyes desperate to know that Sawamura was well and truly loved now, that he hadn’t messed up Sawamura’s faith in all things romantic. Terushima felt something twist painfully in his chest, only eased slightly by the realization that he did love Sawamura, that he would do whatever he could to make sure that he was happy and well-loved, even if Sawamura never wanted to actually be with him.

“Yes I do.” Sawamura said softly. “And it took me a damn long time to get him, so please don’t confess that you are still in love with me and mess this all up.” Sawamura let out a wounded noise as Sugawara chopped him in the side. Terushima laughed, surprised at the tears in his eyes.

“Okay! I have a wedding to put together, have you ever seen Oikawa’s old school uniform? He thought it was stylish, I have to make sure the tableclothes aren’t plaid.” Sugawara was pulling himself together, wiping off the rest of the tears.

“Um- Suga, have you looked in the mirror?” Sawamura asked, still rubbing his side.

“Don’t be ridiculous Daichi, we both know I still look adorable even when I’m falling to pieces.” Sugawara patted him on the back, grinned impishly at Terushima before quickly walking out of the bathroom.

“I mean- he’s not wrong.” Terushima agreed, causing Sawamura to laugh.

Compared to the bathroom incident, the rest of the day was relatively tame. Oikawa was surprisingly tame and calm, the reason obvious when he was beaming over at Sugawara during the ceremony. Sugawara had managed to completely pull himself together, looking handsome and dashing next to the modelesque-looking Oikawa, who had already cried three times at the little alien cufflinks Iwaizumi had given him before the ceremony. The groomsmen on both sides all looked good, all in various states of crying as they watched the happy couple.

Terushima had Kozume point out the elusive Ushijima Wakatoshi during the ceremony, a tall stoic looking man that Oikawa scolded and stuck his tongue out at before the ceremony. Oikawa got a whack upside the head by Iwaizumi for that behavior.

Dinner went smoothly and everyone piled into the same room they had all met up in on the first night. Music was loud and good, the alcohol free, and the company great. Terushima danced with Hinata, laughing and surprised at how good the ginger haired man was. He endured several teary-eyed hugs from Sugawara and many drinks provided by a smirking Kuroo. Kageyama appeared out of nowhere, bowing and offering Terushima a pork bun before disappearing again, a laughing Yamaguchi following behind him, explaining his boyfriends odd behavior with a simple, “It’s his way of saying thanks.” Terushima enjoyed the pork bun, several people asking where he got it from.

Tanaka brought over his new boyfriend and a row of shots, his way of thanking Terushima. Ennoshita forced Tanaka to stop with just one shot, his way of thanking Terushima. Azumane and Nishinoya were at the ceremony and the after party. They were near each other but Terushima couldn’t tell if they were together or _together_ and shouted at them to kiss, after one too many drinks. Azumane had turned bright red and Nishinoya had laughed before leading Terushima back to the dancefloor. Nishinoya was surprisingly uncoordinated on the dancefloor.

“What the hell is that?” Terushima wasn’t sure when he acquired a scarf Oikawa or how exactly one got rid of it.

“What is what?” Terushima asked, nudging away another shot. They just kept appearing and Terushima knew he was just a couple more away from being blackout drunk, and he wanted to remember the rest of the night. Especially since it was his last night being Sawamura Daichi’s boyfriend, even though he hadn’t seen his not-really-boyfriend since dinner.

“That, new boyfriend, that right there.” Oikawa motioned, pressing more of his hefty weight against Terushima’s back. Terushima squinted, trying to follow the line of sight of the drunken, newly married man on his back.

“You’re still angry that Ushijima is here?” Terushima asked. He had briefly talked to the tall man, realizing he was incredibly polite while also being brutally honest. Terushima liked the combination.

“Yes! No! Look who he’s talking to!” Terushima closed one eye, as if that would help his focus in the dimly lit room.

“Oh Iwaizumi!” Terushima waved, only slightly put out when the other man didn’t wave back, until he realized he was several yards away and talking to Ushijima. “They look like they are having fun.” Terushima had no idea if they were, he couldn’t really make out their expressions.

“He’s flirting. Look, look, he’s going to rub the back of his head to subtly draw attention to his biceps and stretch the fabric of his shirt across his shoulders and pecs.” Oikawa’s breath was warm, too warm and a little wet, against the side of Terushima’s face but he obliged the older man, it was his wedding day after all.

“Daichi does the same thing.” Terushima said slowly. “Iwaizumi does have nice- everything, muscles- body, good- good stuff.” He motioned wildly to Iwaizumi’s good stuff.

“Of course Sawamura does the same thing! Where he rubs the back of his neck? Classic look at me and all my stupid manly muscles, I can grow a beard- pfft, that doesn’t make you a real man! Some men can’t grow beards and that’s perfectly acceptable!” Oikawa was still shouting as he made his way over to Iwaizumi, who looked over at him with exasperation.

“So, you’ve met drunk Oikawa, how was it?” Sawamura asked, sliding into place in front of Terushima. Terushima smiled happily, if not a little drunkenly too, as he leaned against the man in question.

“Confusing, does Iwaizumi like Ushijima?” Terushima asked, wrapping his arms around Sawamura’s waist, who hummed happily above him and nuzzled his hair lightly. “And that thing where you rub the back of your neck, is that to show off your muscles?”

“Um- no? I don’t think so anyways.” Sawamura looked over at where Iwaizumi had Oikawa in a headlock. Ushijima was looking on in mild confusion. “But Oikawa knows Iwaizumi better than I do, so if he says he was flirting, then he probably was. Even if Oikawa is drunk.”

“It’s suspicious you’re not answering about the neck rubbing business.” Terushima said, speaking against Sawamura’s neck because that’s where he was currently nuzzling. Sawamura laughed before his fingers trailed down Terushima’s sides.

“Want to head back to our room?” Terushima was nodding before Sawamura had even finished the sentence.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guys, do you know how sweet you all are because you all are so sweet! I just thought you should know you're the best people and thank you so much for all your wonderful comments and kudos! I'm sorry this took a little more time to update, I wanted to put the wedding in this chapter without making it sound rushed, and it ended up sounding rushed anyways!
> 
> Just one final chapter to go! I hope you've enjoyed the story thus far and I hope you enjoy the next chapter too!


	9. Chapter Nine

“So what do you think?” Terushima’s boss, Okamoto, asks as he stares at the pile of junk before them. Terushima backs away from his quick inspection. The old car would need a lot of work and a good chunk of money would go into repairing it and getting it to actually function as a car again, instead of a very large, smelly useless paperweight. “I’ll give you time spent repairing and ten percent of the profits.” Ten was fair, Terushima would actually work on it just to waste away the time.

“Sounds good.” Terushima and Okamota shook on it before Terushima was ushered off to go replace a belt on another car. Terushima liked his bartending job, it was casual and he was good with people, but his job at the garage paid better and this repair job meant he’d have to take up less shifts at the bar.

It also meant he could shove his head into a repair job for hours on end and turn off his brain in the meantime. The brain that just kept running through the wedding, the days that led up to it and after it, even if it was over a week ago and there’d barely been any communication since then.

It wasn’t a surprise, this lack of talking between them. They had gone days, a couple times weeks without talking and it shouldn’t have been a bother to go back to it. Terushima was busy with his two jobs, working out, and catching up with his own friends. Sawamura was working doubles making up for the time he took off for the wedding, plus he had his final test coming up to decide whether he’d be given a license to practice medicine or if he’d be stuck as a resident for another six months before the test was given again. Sawamura had told him that he would be stuck doing long shifts followed by long study sessions and in between trying to catch at least a couple hours of sleep.

It hurt and Terushima was angry with himself because it shouldn’t. He had acknowledged that he was in love with Sawamura, acknowledged that maybe pretending to be his boyfriend for part of a week wasn’t exactly helpful towards his emotional or mental state, acknowledged that maybe Sawamura and him took the fake-boyfriend thing a little too far, so why did he still feel like that old car shoved into the back of the garage? Useless, ugly, abandoned.

It was pathetic, Terushima felt pathetic. Pining away after a guy who was just trying to get through his life with minimum waves made. He had probably purposely chose Terushima because he had thought only-fucks-around-Terushima would never get attached.

“Ah, fuck- stupid son of a bitch-” Terushima grinned at the sound of angry yelling. Only Kamasaki Yasushi could get away with swearing so loudly with customers waiting in the nice air conditioned office in the front. That’s because, despite his belligerent personality and gruff behavior, he was a damn good mechanic, the best the garage had. Probably way too good to work here, which is why Okamoto pretended not to hear all the curse words that came out of the blonde haired man. That, and Kamasaki was never rude or bad mannered towards Okamoto himself, just cars and stupid customers and sometimes other mechanics.

“So, everything’s going really well over here, huh?” Terushima asked, leaning against the car Kamasaki was working on. Years prior, when Terushima had stumbled into the mechanic job by happy accident, he and Kamasaki had messed around a little, more of a stress reliever than anything. Kamasaki had been even angrier back then, Terushima learned later that his girlfriend had broken up with him, out of the blue for Kamasaki. Terushima knew it probably wasn’t really out of the blue, Kamasaki was oblivious to a lot of things, and he spent far too much time at the garage. Plus his gruff manner wasn’t exactly aimed well towards romance. Terushima hadn’t minded, he hadn’t been looking for romance at the time.

“Fuck off.” Kamasaki grunted, not even bothering to look up from the engine he was currently pulling apart. “Who the fuck- why would you- none of this belongs in here!” Terushima peered at the engine, nodding in agreement as it looked like a mishmash of wrong sized parts and certain ones that no mechanic in his right mind would fix to a small compact car.

“Are you going to be working on that repair job?” Terushima asked and Kamasaki finally decided to look at him.

“Fuck off Yuuji.” Kamasaki said slowly, but Terushima just laughed.

“If I can order the parts you need before you find the actual problem then you’re picking up dinner tonight.” Terushima only had to wait until the count of five.

“Deal.” Kamasaki grunted, almost throwing himself back into the engine as Terushima mentally cataloged all the parts he had already pulled out before walking over to the computer pushed off to the side. The repair job would mean many late nights spent in the garage with Kamasaki, and Terushima knew from experience that the other man couldn’t resist any competition. This way Terushima would get some free dinners out of the experience.

\------

“Here I’ll show you a picture!” Futamata puts down the plates, half way towards the table where Bobata is setting up the food. Bobata gets up and grabs the plates as Futamata practically sits in Terushima’s lap, making himself comfortable as he turns his phone around to show Terushima pictures.

“That’s just a picture of an ass Takeharu!” Terushima tries to push Futamata away as he cackles, rather evilly if Terushima admits it. “Why do I keep falling for that every time!”

“Every time.” Bobata agrees, doling out food onto each plate, his features amazingly stoic.

“No! It’s Bobata’s ass this time!” Terushima whines, tossing himself back onto the floor and rolling around, just for dramatic effect. “You’re going to get murdered one day and the police will look at your phone and they’ll question me, they’ll be like, hey Terushima-”

“These cops are overly familiar with you, I don’t like that.” Bobata interrupts but Terushima pushes on, used to being interrupted by his two friends.

“Why are there so many pictures of asses on you friends phone? And I’ll say-”

“Wait, how did I get murdered? You can’t just skip over the good parts Yuuji!”

“Yeah Yuuji, you suck at telling stories. How did Takeharu get murdered? Was it you? I knew you had a shifty face.”

“Yeah, shittyface!”

“He said shifty face!” Terushima lashed out, kicking Futamata, who was laughing too hard for someone who had been properly kicked in the stomach. “And I’ll say, he was harassing me! He was a bad man! A bad friend, the world is better without him and his ass ways!” Terushima continued to kick Futamata, who in retaliation, just sat on the offending limbs.

“That was a lame story Yuuji.” Futamata complained.

“Get off, you’re so heavy, you’re going to break my legs!”

“A really bad story.” Bobata said solemnly, already eating as he watched the other two from the other side of the table. Terushima leaned up and pinched the roll of skin on Futamata’s stomach. Futamata gasped and pressed a hand against his side, looking horrified. “Uh-oh.”

“I’m sorry Takeharu!” Terushima squeaked, trying to roll himself in a ball as Futamata began pummelling him with a pillow he somehow produced out of seemingly thin air.

“I gain weight very easy!” Futamata yelled. “My job is very stressful!” Futamata’s hits ceased. “People keep bringing me sweets.” Futamata lays against Terushima, sniffling, and Terushima unfolds himself enough to pet at Futamata’s long hair. It’s long enough to braid now, and he starts twisting it into a braid while Futamata laments about all the sweets he had eaten that week.

“I think the weight looks good on you.” Bobata speaks up once Futamata’s long list has ended, and Terushima uses the end of the braid to tickle Futamata’s ear.

“Really?” Futamata asked, sitting up and knocking away Terushima’s hand. The other two grab their plates and begin to eat.

“It makes your face look fuller, older.” Terushima said after practically inhaling half of his plate. Futamata smiles at this, happy once again. Futamata had always been on the skinny side of things. He had been short and skinny as a kid and then tall and skinny as a teen. In recent years he had stopped working out, his schedule as a nurse not really allowing for it, and he did have a rather hefty sweets problem. He wasn’t overweight, but he was adorably chubby. At least in Terushima’s opinion he was, and by the amount of sweets he got from female fans he would assume that other people found him adorable too.

“Most of those sweets come from people who like you.” Bobata said, grinning happily with Futamata cheered, going back to the original conversation they had started with.

“How are you going to explain all these ass pictures to your new girlfriend?” Terushima asked as he leaned over so Futamata could show him a picture of a smiling redhead with deep dimples. “And how did you get Kazuma to agree to that?”

“I delete them after I show them to you, of course, I’m not gross.” Futamata grins as he looks down at the picture of his new girlfriend. “And he lost a bet, it took me over a decade but I’ve finally gotten you to look at every single naked ass of our whole team.”

“Now that your lifes goal is accomplished, what is your next move?” Bobata asked, using his newscaster voice as he points his chopsticks at Futamata as a makeshift microphone.

“Oh I don’t know, I’m just so excited to finally- ow Yuuji, don’t throw food! What are you, five?” Futamata picks the noodles off of his face and eats them.

“Says the person who’s first thought of befriending me in high school is ‘I gotta get this guy to see everyone’s bare ass’.” Terushima pushed himself up to grab them all a beer. “How did you meet her?”

“She works at the bakery across the street from the hospital.” Futamata said dreamily, making Terushima and Bobata laugh. Futamata clears his throat as he takes the beer, Terushima settling back down in his spot. “Speaking of the hospital, it’s kind of hectic there. The residents are all in a tizzy because of the test.”

“Takeharu you are the least subtle person I’ve ever met.” Terushima said, but he can’t help but be a bit fond about it.

“Sawamura looks like he hasn’t had a good night's rest in weeks, I haven’t seen him look this bad in-” Futamata shares a look with Bobata that isn’t lost on Terushima. “A long time.” Futamata finishes lamely.

“I brought some extra scrubs by for Takeharu the other day, he looked bad.” Bobata intoned gravely. Terushima squirmed under their combined stares, to pretend to not be effected was never going to work for him. Of course he was affected, it was natural for him to worry about Sawamura, as natural as his worry for Bobata when he was hit with his seasonal depression or his worry for Futamata when he stared too long at his reflection, looking disappointed.

“It’s that test, once he gets through it everything will be fine again.” Terushima said, waving his hand dismissively but inside his stomach was rolling. Just like most people, Sawamura could drive himself right over the edge. He was usually responsible, but once and awhile everyone forgot to take care of themselves, but it wasn’t Terushima’s job to take care of Sawamura. Terushima could text him, remind him to eat and sleep like a friend would but what else could he do?

“Yuuji-” Futamata started but Terushima was already shaking his head.

“I’ve offered to come over, test him with notecards or bring dinner or- whatever, but he doesn’t want me to.” Terushima looks away, his eyes burning. He’s so angry with himself, so fed up with his own behavior and now he’s two words from actually crying in front of his friends. Bobata is aromantic, and Terushima can’t help but think that’s the way to go, but you can’t choose who you fall in love with the same way you can’t choose your sexuality. “Take care of him, okay Takeharu?” It’s the only thing Terushima can do.

\---------

“ _Fuck_ ,” Terushima wants to sob as the man pressed against him actually has the gall to laugh.

“Normally I don’t mind foul language but that doesn’t sound like a good fuck.” Kamasaki said before pushing himself off of Terushima and sitting down heavily in the rollie chair he had previously occupied before they had begun to make out against the wall. “Good fuck.” Kamasaki repeats with another laugh. Terushima kicks the chair, causing it to spin before he wiggles his arm out of his jumpsuit, letting the top half hang loose. Kamasaki had been pulling him out of it before, but he couldn’t get into it properly.

Kamasaki was attractive, all muscular without an ounce of fat on him, Terushima even likes his foul mouth and abrasive attitude. He’s too tall, Terushima doesn’t like men who are too much taller than him, but he was willing to let that go because the man seriously knows what he’s doing.

“You look frustrated.” Kamasaki shifted in the chair, grinning slightly. “And not in the same way I’m frustrated as in I was guaranteed a sure thing and now I have a semi-” He laughed again as Terushima kicked his chair away. “You’re fucking in it, aren’t you? You’re all emotional turmoil and weepy and shit.”

“Very eloquently put.” Terushima grumbled, but Kamasaki wasn’t exactly wrong. He felt like he’d been put through the ringer, it had been over two weeks since the wedding and the texting between Sawamura and Terushima was even more sparse than it had began. Terushima knew that it was going to be rough, but he didn’t quite understand the complete gutted feeling he was going to have.

“So wedding guy didn’t work out?” Kamasaki asked, only earning a glare. Kamasaki’s look turned sly. “You know, I knew someone at that wedding too. My old underclassman is dating someone who was in the wedding party.” Terushima wracked his brain before groaning loudly.

“Aone.” Terushima sighed, completely forgetting that Kamasaki had gone to Date Tech also. Terushima’s team had only played against Date Tech after Kamasaki had graduated.

“Right.” Kamasaki was still grinning, which cemented Terushima’s idea that he was some kind of incubus that lived off of other people’s torment. “You should just confess, high school style. Do it in a note shoved into his locker if you have to, but just fucking get it out there already before it turns you into more a whiny bastard.”

“And I would trust your love advice why?” Terushima asked, nasty because he was feeling particularly vulnerable.

“Because I held everything in and that turned out so well for me, yeah?” Kamasaki asked, pushing himself out of the chair and looming over Terushima, which is exactly why he didn’t like men taller than himself. “Pushing 30 and comforting an old fuck buddy late into the night. Trust me, you don’t want to find yourself where I am when you get to my age.” Terushima followed Kamasaki out of the office, back to the repair project.

“Kamasaki, you’re barely a year older than me.” Terushima said, feeling a bit lighter already.

“Right, so you better get on it.” Maybe it was the lateness of the evening or maybe Kamasaki could be intelligent and confident sounding when he put his mind to it, but Terushima was actually considering his advice. Sawamura technically did have a locker at the hospital, and he had a perfect lovable friend who’d love to shove a confession letter into it.

\--------

“Did you ever write a confession letter in school?” Terushima asked the two other women he was bartending with when their was a lull in service. Fujimura and Takeuchi looked at each other and laughed.

“Probably once a week for Fujimura.” Takeuchi grinned, earning her a light shove as she cleaned off the counter.

“Did you just reuse the same one and change the name?” Terushima asked, following Fujimura’s frantic movements behind the bar. Even when they weren’t busy she was a flurry of movements always.

“Of course not!” Fujimura said, absolutely disgusted by the very idea. “Each one had to be organic towards each person. Thinking about sending a love letter Terushima?” Both girls ooh’d childishly at him, laughing at their own joke.

“Yes actually.” Terushima sniffed before filling a beer for a customer down at the very end of the bar. He chatted with him for a moment, making sure he was satisfied, before making his way back to the girls. Some people wanted to be left alone. “I’ve been trying to write one for about three days but I keep forgetting to end sentences and go on tangents.” Terushima wrote like he talked, it had gotten him into a lot of trouble in high school. Something about run-on sentences and the murder of punctuation. Terushima was too busy flirting with the class president to really pay attention to lectures.

“It has to come from the heart.” Fujimura said, fluttering her eyelashes as she passed by him again, restocking the alcohol below the counter.

“Fujimura falls in love with everyone.” Takeuchi rolled her eyes, but it was already something Terushima noticed. It seemed like an easy way to get your heart broken, then again Terushima had tried to protect his heart and here he was, talking about writing love letters with two flirty 21 year old girls, who were still in college.

“I can’t help it, I love the idea of love and I love people.” Fujimura handed Terushima a wet cloth, motioning to the higher shelves behind the bar she couldn’t reach. Terushima stepped up to his toes and made of show of dusting before settling back down on his heels once Fujimura turned around.

“She loves them until she actually gets to know them.” Takeuchi said before turning around to help two guys, motioning them to a both and yelling an order for food into the kitchen. The food at the bar was exceptionally good, it was part of the reason they even had customers on a random Wednesday evening.

“I never said anything about staying in love.” Fujimura was wiping down tables now. Watching her exhausted Terushima, Takeuchi must have thought the same as she sprawled her long limbs over the bar.

“I don’t know how any of this is helping me write a confession?” Terushima asked.

“You should write something from the heart, make sure to stick to them not yourself, and be complimentary but don’t be too weepy.” A voice said softly from the kitchen. Terushima was shocked.

“Did you know chef could talk? I thought she was mute.” Takeuchi whispered to Terushima.

“I think I’m in love.” Fujimura said breezily as she went to the storage closet to grab the broom.

Terushima was five hours into his six hour shift at the bar with the majority of his letter written on small, sometimes sticky, napkins. He had been helped by the other bartenders, the chef, and a couple helpful and sometimes not so helpful patrons. Terushima was ready to race home and write out his confession. He had already texted Futamata, asking if they could meet up for breakfast in the morning before he had his shift at the hospital.

With an hour left of his shift, the object of his inner turmoil deemed that a good moment to walk into his bar, with five other people who clearly were residents. They were talking loudly about the test, and sidled right up to the bar, asking for celebratory drinks. Fujimura got them shots, congratulating them and chatting them up. They already seemed a bit drunk.

“So you passed?” Terushima asked, trying to walk up as casually as he could to the group. Most of them were mesmerized by Fujimura’s bright smile and long blonde hair, she was half Sweedish and it was a little bit of a novelty to some people.

“Yuuji.” Sawamura whisper-yelled, trying to slide onto the bar stool but falling right off the other side. He narrowed his eyes, giving the stool his best Captain Look before sitting on it with satisfication. “Yuuji!” Sawamura said again, as if he had forgotten he’d just seen him.

“You passed your test?” Terushima asked, grinning despite the pain burning somewhere beneath his rib cage. Terushima got Sawamura a beer before ordering some food for him, something to soak up some of that alcohol in his system.

“Mmhm.” Sawamura nodded, looking sleepy and drunk and happy all at once. Futamata had been right, Sawamura did look rough. The dark circles beneath his eyes looked like bruises and he had definitely lost some weight. His dark skin was unusually pallid and he was drooping in his seat, but he still looked happy.

“How are people suppose to take you serious about their health as their doctor when you look like the crypt keeper?” Terushima asked, leaning against the bar and folding his fingers into fists so he wouldn’t do something truly dumb like run his fingers through Sawamura’s slightly longer bangs. He was lying of course, Sawamura still looked great even if he looked severely sleep deprived.

“I’m a doctor now.” Sawamura said gravely before a goofy grin split his face.

“You’re also kind of a lightweight.” Terushima laughed, because while he was a lightweight, he was a happy drunk too. Terushima loved happy drunk Sawamura because happy drunk Sawamura sometimes giggled, a thing which sober Sawamura always denied vehemently.

“You’re also kind of pretty.” Sawamura said, attempting to take a sip of his beer but misjudged where his mouth was a poured the drink on the side of his face. Terushima shook his head before handing Sawamura a cloth to clean himself.

It was all the time Terushima had with Sawamura, a precious five minutes after three weeks of near-silence, before he was pulled off with the rest of his drunk residents-turned-doctors group. Terushima wanted to usher Sawamura away, get him home and safe and make sure he slept a solid 12 hours. He wanted Sawamura to wake up to breakfast, wanted to make sure he ate every last bit and got a hot shower after and then lazed around the rest of the day because he obviously needed a break.

Terushima wished he had been a little more convincing, tried a little harder to see Sawamura. Didn’t back down immediately when Sawamura replied with ‘I don’t want to be a bother’ or ‘You’re probably tired too’ or all his other comebacks that didn’t actually involve a solid no, don’t come over. Terushima wished he had made sure Sawamura got enough rest and food and actually remembered to relax every once and a while because, _for gods sake Sawamura, you’re 28 years old and you’re driving yourself to an early deathbed._

Terushima’s shift ended and the not-quite-ready confession letter felt heavy in his pocket.

\--------

“Sawamura’s going to be there.” Futamata spat out the moment Terushima answered his phone. “I’m sorry, but he was there and I was talking about it and it was only natural that I invited him!” It was only natural because for the past year or so Sawamura had become apart of their group. He went on morning jogs with Bobata, he ate most of his meals at work with Futamata, and he was there when they all got together. It was natural that Sawamura would be there when Bobata and Terushima met Futamata’s new girlfriend for the first time.

“Slow down Takeharu, it’s fine.” Terushima knows why Futamata is panicking, because of the confession note. Terushima had given it to Futamata four days prior, before quickly calling Futamata after they had parted and begging him to toss the note. It was not one of Terushima proudest moments, but it was what it was.

“Are you sure? Because I can-” Futamata trails off because there’s not too much he could do. Of course he’d be willing to cut off Sawamura from their life, but Terushima would never even consider that.

“It’s fine, really!” Terushima laughs to show just how fine it is. “Plus he could probably use a home cooked meal.”

“Yeah, I still don’t think he’s sleeping regularly- oh sorry, I’ll be right there! I have to go, I’ll see you tonight, okay?” Futamata said about five other things, too quickly for Terushima to follow, before hanging up.

Sugawara, claiming he had gotten the information from Hinata, had sent him pictures from the wedding. Mostly pictures of Sawamura and Terushima, whether separate or together. Terushima hadn’t even noticed the professional photographer snapping pictures of either of them. There were a couple that weren’t taken by the photographer, blurry or out of focus. Pictures of Sawamura laughing with all his friends, his tie loose and the sleeves of his shirt rolled up, baring his forearms. Pictures of Sawamura standing next to Sugawara, a proud smile on his face, tears in his eyes. Pictures of Sawamura leaning against the bar, looking at a laughing Terushima and Terushima must be some kind of masochist because he keeps looking at the picture, hoping against hope that the dopey, happy look on Sawamura’s face is something made from love and not alcohol and the happiness bred from weddings.

\-------

“Can’t believe he fell asleep, doesn’t he know that’s not safe?” Bobata asked as they all stood in the kitchen, eaten pastries Futamata’s girlfriend had brought from her bakery, watching Sawamura snore softly on the couch.

“Maybe he’s assuming because we’re adults we won’t do anything to him?” Terushima asked, cheeks puffed out from the food he’s storing away in them like a squirrel. He can’t help it, the pastries are good and if he doesn’t eat quickly then he won’t get any of them.

“I’m resisting every urge inside me telling me to draw a mustache on him.” Futamata leaned further against the counter, as if trying to get closer to the unsuspecting Sawamura. “No dicks or anything too outlandish, just a thin, small mustache done in permanent marker. Something artistic that says something about me as a person.”

“You could draw two tiny dicks that make up a mustache.” Bobata said, mouth full of pastries.

The dinner had been a success, Futamata always had a habit of dating women who fit into their group perfectly. She was intelligent, fun, beautiful, and more than 10 centimeters taller than Futamata, almost the same height as Bobata. Sawamura had fallen asleep in the corner of the couch almost as soon as they had finished dinner. The only reason he wasn’t be woken up harshly by various pranks was because they all recognized that he needed the sleep desperately.

“We should probably wake him up before the train stops running.” Terushima said after taking a large drink of milk to wash down the pastries with. He stretched, bemoaning himself for crouching over the counter for so long.

“I’ll help do the dishes?” Futamata asked Bobata. Despite the fact that they are always at Bobata’s apartment, they two don’t actually live together. Futamata lives two floors up, but Bobata is the cook and his apartment is always clean, with the best couches. Terushima lives a ten minute walk from them. Despite everyone teasing them for not being able to live far from each other, they hadn’t purposely moved close together, it had just been a happy coincidence.

“You’ll do the dishes.” Bobata grumbled, shoving Futamata towards the stack of dirty dishes. “I cook, you clean. That was the deal sealed in blood, do not try to break the pact.” Bobata said gravelly as Futamata whined about tough baked on food and his delicate skin getting pruney from the water.

“The pact must be completed upon penalty of tiny dick mustache!” Terushima didn’t yell, despite the want to, and despite the fact that he was about to wake up Sawamura anyways.

“No not the tiny dick mustache.” Futamata slumped over the dirty dishes. “Just leave me here to die.” Terushima laughed before making his way over to Sawamura, kneeling down in front of him. Terushima’s heart clenched painfully, even asleep he looked exhausted.

“Hey Daichi.” Terushima shook Sawamura’s shoulder lightly, surprised when the other man jumped up into wakefulness.

“Oh! Yuuji, sorry I- sorry.” Sawamura rubbed at his eyes, causing them to turn red along with the bruised circles under them. “What time is it?” Sawamura groaned when Terushima gave him the time. “I have a shift in four hours.” Even Terushima could do the quick math. Fifteen minute walk to the trains, most likely five minute wait for it to come, twenty minute ride home, another fifteen minute walk home and there was near another hour gone.

“Why don’t you just crash at my place?” Terushima found himself offering before he could really think about it. “It’s only ten minutes from here, and only five minutes from the bus so you could at least get a couple hours of sleep at my place before taking the bus to the hospital.” Terushima knew that it would make more sense to crash at Bobata’s place, or even Futamata’s, neither would be bothered with Sawamura sleeping on their couch, but Terushima wanted this. Wanted Sawamura back at his apartment, even if it was only for a couple hours.

“That okay?” Sawamura asked, already looking relieved as Terushima pulled him up to his feet.

“Of course.” Terushima’s couch was too small for Sawamura to sleep on it comfortably, and he didn’t have a futon so he’d have to sleep on his bed. It was big and comfortable, both things Sawamura already knew from past experience, and the other man was too tired to argue about sharing it. Terushima felt a bit bad, shameful and devious but he also felt like a man floundering at sea, willing to take any scraps for himself.

The walk to Terushima’s apartment was silent and cold, the streets mostly deserted because of the late night and the harsh chill to the air. Sawamura hid half his face in his scarf, looking remarkably more awake than he did when they were leaving Bobata’s apartment. Another wave of guilt hit Terushima, he should have just let Sawamura rest at Bobata’s, he was being entirely too selfish.

“Why did you come tonight if you knew you had such an early shift?” Terushima asked as they brushed snow off themselves when they entered his dark apartment. They kicked off their shoes, Sawamura lining his neatly to the side and Terushima leaving them where they fell.

“It was important to Futamata.” Sawamura said with a shrug because it was simple to him. Terushima felt his heart twist because it was what he had come to learn about Sawamura, that he put himself before others, especially those he cared for.

“You taking care of yourself is important to Takeharu too.” Terushima said as he led Sawamura down the short hall and to his bedroom. Unlike messy Sawamura, Terushima was relatively neat. His dirty clothes were piling up, but at least they were all in a hamper and right next to the hamper, but that was the only thing out of order.

“Is it important just to him?” Sawamura asked when Terushima handed him some clothes to sleep in.

“No, of course not.” Terushima muttered, feeling unusually shy as he played with his tongue ring before grabbing clothes for himself. “Make yourself comfortable, I’m going to shower.”

“I’ll probably be asleep before you’re done.” Sawamura said, smiling apologetically as he shucked off his jeans and sweater.

“Take the far side of the bed then, so I don’t wake you when I get in.” Terushima answered, feeling a bit mechanical as he walked to the bathroom to start his nightly routine. Terushima spends the time clearing his mind, or at least trying to. He was never good at mediating. Well, he never has meditated before, but he just assumed it would be one of those things he’d be bad at.

Terushima’s mind is such a jumbled mess that he’s not even sure he’ll be able to get to sleep as he slides into bed next to Sawamura, who’s already deep asleep. Terushima wants to wake him up, ask him what they are, what Sawamura wants, what did those couple of days a month ago mean to him? But Sawamura needs to sleep and Terushima doesn’t think asking a dozen slightly needy and clingy questions to a sleepy Sawamura is the best way to approach the situation.

Terushima promises himself just a little more time, just a little more patience. Once Sawamura stops looking like a member of the undead then they’ll speak, he just needs a little bit more time.

Terushima sleeps lightly, wakes up when Sawamura’s phones alarm starts beeping. Terushima mumbles something, hopefully about him having a good day or eating right and not anything to do with how good he looks in Terushimas clothes or how he hasn’t stopped thinking about him since the wedding or how he’s been in love with him for a year now. Whatever he says, hopefully incomprehensible, has Sawamura chuckling.

Terushima listens to the soft sounds of Sawamura changing, willing his body to get up and make coffee for him, maybe offer to walk to the bus station with him. Terushima must have fallen asleep again because the next thing he knows is there’s a soft, warm pressure against his temple and Sawamura is speaking softly, words Terushima’s brain is too asleep to decipher correctly.

\-----

_Dinner 8pm?_

Terushima stared down at the note that had been taped to his bathroom mirror, written clearly in Sawamura’s messy scrawl. The man was obviously always meant to be a doctor with handwriting like that. He must have read Terushima’s schedule that he keeps in his kitchen, knew he’d get off work at 7.

Sawamura had tried to offer to bring food, but Terushima turned that down. The man had clearly been living off too make take out and needed a good home cooked meal, even though he had just had one of Bobata’s famous and very rare meals yesterday. Terushima couldn’t make much but he could make shoyo ramen from scratch, it was simple and easy and just so happened to be Sawamura’s favorite. When Terushima had bribed him with his favorite dish Sawamura had quickly crumbled but insisted on bringing desert.

A little before 8 found Terushima buzzing Sawamura into the building. He unlocked his apartment door and left it open a crack before rushing back to the kitchen.

“Sorry for the intrusion.” Sawamura’s soft voice rang out causing Terushima to grin despite his frazzled nerves. He didn’t even know why he was so nervous in the first place, it’s not the first dinner they had shared together. Terushima hadn’t confessed his undying love in a letter, or any other way, and Sawamura was- well, he was Sawamura. Warm and wonderful and hopelessly oblivious.

“In the kitchen.” Terushima called out, even though he knew Sawamura was already making his way to the kitchen.

“I brought dango for dessert.” Sawamura hummed happily as he peered over Terushima’s shoulder while he got the bowls of shoyo ramen ready.

“You’re a godsend.” Terushima said with true feeling, he was a sucker for sweets. “Can you grab the tea and utensils? I’ve got the bowls.” Sawamura nodded, grabbing the items before following Terushima to the living room where they sat at the table in front of the couch. Terushima didn’t have a proper table for eating, most of his meals were consumed right there in front of the tv.

“Is this-” Terushima cut off Sawamura as he sat down heavily.

“Yeah yeah, it’s the new Ninja Turtles movie, no idea why you would want to see this trainwreck but think of this as your congratulations on passing your test party.” They both bent their heads over the food quickly before breaking the chopsticks and beginning to dig in, even before Terushima had properly pushed play.

Terushima couldn’t help how his heart gave a painful twist at the sheer domesticity of the situation. Sawamura coming over after a hard day's work, Terushima making his favorite meal and offering to watch what could possibly be the murder of his childhood just to make the other man happy. Sitting side by side, slurping noodles and laughing quietly together.

“I know your secret.” Terushima choked on a piece of pork as Sawamura laughed and patted his back. “You like this movie, you’re enjoying it, I can tell.” Terushima wanted to crawl into his bedroom, lay down, and sleep until he was cool again. When had he become this mess of jumbled nerves? Was he- could he possibly be, a huge dork? Obviously he had been spending too much time with Sawamura.

Except it had been nearly a month since they’d been together. Terushima missed Sawamura, missed this light teasing and the warmth his body radiated as they leaned back against the couch, stomachs sated.

“You’re clearly sleep deprived and seeing things.” Terushima managed to choke out. Then it struck Terushima, Sawamura should actually be sleeping now, but the other man just laughed when Terushima brought it up.

“I got six hours of sleep before I came over here, I’m fine.” Sawamura motioned to his face. “These dark circles? All natural baby.” Sawamura winked, actually winked at him and Terushima had to push Sawamura's face away at the sheer level of dorkiness radiating off him. “Anyway I didn’t feel like putting this off any longer, I meant to do it last night but I was- well I fell asleep, that was embarrassing.” Sawamura was pushing himself to his feet, lumbering over to his coat and searching through the pockets.

“Put off what?” Terushima’s mind raised and he was surprised how his voice sounded merely curious. Had Sawamura finally found a significant other that wasn’t some poor mechanic and bartender? Had he figured out Terushima’s feelings and decided to put a stop to their- whatever they had? Had Suga or Kuroo realized the hugemistake they had made and begged him back and now they were going off to live a happy poly-relationship without him?

“This.” Sawamura pushed a letter in front of Terushima’s face. Terushima panicked, thinking it was his letter, before realizing the soft blue outline on the envelope that his didn’t have. Terushima took it gently, as if it was a bomb ready to explode at the slightest movement. The only thing written on it was his name, in a well-known messy scrawl.

“Daichi?” Terushima looked up as Sawamura rubbed the back of his neck, shirt pulling tight over long, lean muscles. A blush was rising over his cheeks, spreading down his neck and to the tips of his ears.

“I know you’re suppose to shove it in a locker, and I tried to do it at the auto shop but some guy with blonde hair yelled at me and threatened me with a wrench.” Sawamura shoved his hands deep into his jean pockets. “I’ll go get the dessert.” Sawamura turned on his heel and marched over to the kitchen, leaving Terushima alone.

Terushima looked down at the envelope, his heart rate normal but it seemed like each beat was loud, hard against his chest. His mind felt foggy, his fingertips tingled strangely. He pushed himself up and walked into the kitchen.

“Is this- is it a confession?” Terushima asked, surprised at how casual his voice sounded when he was practically having an out of body experience.

“Um- yes? I didn’t really think about you reading it in front of me, that’s- please don’t do that.” Sawamura was pressing his back against the counter, staring at something above Terushima’s shoulder. His face was still red, but he looked a little sick now. “Fuck this is- wow, I didn’t actually think it’d be this difficult? Yuuji say something.”

“You’re confessing to me?” Terushima asked, glancing down at the letter before looking up at Sawamura.

“Yes.” Sawamura’s voice had gone low, raspy and slightly broken.

“What’s it say?” Terushima asked, finding himself right in front of Sawamura without realizing he had stepped forward. Sawamura was pressing himself even harder against the counter, chocolate eyes sorrowful as he clenched the counter behind him.

“I wrote it all down in there.”

“I want to hear you say it.” Terushima was completely in Sawamura’s space now, a breath was the only thing separating them.

“It says- I wrote that I love you-” Despite needed desperately to know what the rest of it said, Terushima couldn’t let that first line go unanswered. He pressed more into Sawamura’s space, leaning his body against Sawamura’s, pressing his face into the other man's shoulder. Sawamura swallowed audibly. “I’ve been in love with you for a long time, that I never considered us just friends with benefits. I haven’t been with anyone else because- because it’s always been you.” Sawamura’s fingers fisted in the material of Terushima’s shirt, right near his hips. “You’re completely beyond my expectations- beyond anyone's, you’re so- so intelligent and clever and beautiful and god, Yuuji, I didn’t think I could love you anymore than I did.” Terushima turned his head, pressed his lips against Sawamura’s throat so he feel the words along with hear them. “But the wedding happened and I- it was never pretend to me, I thought if I could show you- if you could see how happy I could make you, if you just allowed that- I had a plan. I was suppose to make you fall in love with me, but I just ended up falling more in love with you.” Sawamura’s voice was ragged, his chest heaving against Terushima’s as if he had just run across the city.

“Was that everything?” Terushima asked, pressing soft, barely there kisses up the strong line of Sawamura’s neck.

“I got your letter, Futamata took it before I could read more than the first line, but it gave me hope.” Sawamura’s breathing shuddered out as Terushima gently kissed his strong jaw. “I’m sorry it took me so long, and I’m sorry if I ever made you think- if you ever believed- you mean so much to me Yuuji, you mean everything and you make me so happy. Even when you’re teasing me I’m happy, like some- some idiot who can’t stop smiling even if I just think about you. God, sorry Yuuji, you deserve something better than this- this sad excuse-”

“Perfect, it was perfect Daichi, please stop talking and kiss me now.” Sawamura made a choking sound and Terushima laughed, surprised at how watery it sounded before he realized there were tears on his cheek. Sawamura wasted no further time in kissing him, slow and sweet and a little bit messy considering neither of them could stop smiling and Terushima was crying.

“I want to read your letter.” Sawamura mumbled against Terushima’s lips, his arms strong bands around his waist.

“Never.” Terushima’s free hand, the one not still clutching the letter, was tangled in the hair on Sawamura’s nap.

“Then give me back my letter.” Sawamura pressed forward, their lips still pressed together, smiles and tears and laughter lighting up the small kitchen.

“No it’s mine, you gave it to me.” Terushima pulled lightly on Sawamura’s hair.

“And I just told you what’s in it!” Sawamura was slowly backing Terushima up. There would be no dessert for them, not just then, not until the morning if Terushima had his way.

“I need to read it and see if your writing is just as dorky and stuttery as your speech.” Terushima laughed at Sawamura’s appalled look. Terushima dropped the letter onto the couch but before Sawamura could make a move towards it, he braced his hands on Sawamura’s shoulders and hopped up, wrapping his long legs around Sawamura’s waist. Sawamura grunted but took the weight, and the distraction with a smile.

“Say it.” Sawamura demanded, fingers digging into Terushima’s thighs as he held him up.

“Say what?” Terushima asked innocently, fingers dragging through Sawamura’s hair.

“You know what, I’m not even asking for a letter or a list of everything you like about me, just say it.” Sawamura nudged Terushima’s nose with his own. “Please.”

“If I say it will you take us to the bedroom?” Sawamura nodded and Terushima gave a long, mock sigh, tossing his head back like it was the biggest chore in the world even as his heart gave a happy lurch. “I love you, now let’s go to the bedroom, it’s been a month.”

“So romantic,” Sawamura grunted, rolling his eyes as he dutifully made his way towards the bedroom.

“You love it.” Terushima said, a growing grin and confidence in the words now etched into his heart.

“No, no I take it back. I’ve made a grave error.” Sawamura went to drop Terushima on his bed but Terushima refused to let go so they both went tumbling down. “Like you said, sleep deprivation, I don’t know what I’m saying, I’m clearly having a mental breakdown.” Sawamura was grinning, bracing his arms by Terushima’s shoulders and hovering above his face.

“No take backs.” Terushima squeezed his legs around Sawamura’s hips.

“No take backs.” Sawamura agreed, a soft promise against Terushima’s lips as they finally, finally kissed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

**Bonus:**

Terushima pushed himself out of bed, biting back a groan. He was nearly 50 and feeling every inch of it. Apparently he couldn’t work all day at the garage and then have beers with Sugawara and Oikawa until one in the morning without every last bit of his body aching. Not to mention he was only awake because his warm human body pillow was missing.

Terushima managed to walk to the kitchen without incident, stretching and moving his limbs and listening to various things pop and crack that had not popped or cracked when he had been in his 20’s. Not that he exactly missed his 20s, he had been having a lot of sex- like a lot of sex, but he never had someone to come home to. He never was treated to meals being prepared after dinner, political arguments shared in the showers, comforting silence shared in the morning, a warm body in bed and his personal favorite:

Early morning Sawamura Daichi. The man was 50, and they had been together for over 20 years but he still made Terushima’s heart rate speed up a notch. He was in a ratty gray t shirt and a pair of black boxer briefs. His shoulders and thighs were still something to be admired, even if his stomach and sides had gained a little more weight than he’d like to admit. His hair was longer, peppered with silver and somehow it looked exceedingly good on him. Just like his black framed glasses and the lines near his eyes and mouth.

Their old dog, black with gray around the muzzle that matched his old grumpy man, was laying on the floor with clear adoration in his deep brown eyes for the man in front of him. The man squinting at the coffee maker as if that would make it brew his coffee faster.

“Marry me.” Terushima ordered, wrapping his arms around Sawamura’s waist from behind.

“We’re already married.” Sawamura’s deep voice said, it had become gruffer with age and it made Terushima’s knees weak, and he still had very good knees despite pushing 50. Sawamura tapped the wedding band on Terushima’s finger, humming happily.

“Marry me again.” Terushima squeezed him, enjoying the soft give in his stomach.

“Okay.” Sawamura laughed as Terushima kissed the back of his neck.

“No take backs.” Terushima nuzzled him softly, Sawamura let out a happy noise.

“No take backs.” Sawamura agreed and even though his face was hidden from him, Terushima could still imagine the happy, warm smile spreading across the older man's features.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And everyone lived happily ever after! Even those not shown in his story!
> 
> Aged up characters are my life blood, graying Sawamura Daichi the air I breath!
> 
> I want to say thank you guys so much for all the kind words! I'm sorry this chapter took a little longer to be finished, but hopefully the longer length and general fluffiness makes up for it!

**Author's Note:**

> I love the 'let's pretend we're in a relationship' trope so much.


End file.
